Thaindian News

Amsterdam, Oct 29 (DPA) Royal Dutch Shell reported Thursday a sharp drop in third-quarter earnings and production due to the weak global economy, and said it would cut 5,000 jobs.
The cutbacks are part of the so-called Transition 2009 programme already announced by CEO Peter Voser upon taking up his position July 1.

By cutting the number of divisions from five to three, the company wants to streamline the corporations’ structure and make it more efficient.

The cutbacks represent some 4.9 percent of the corporation’s 102,000-member staff, and almost 10 percent in those divisions Shell is merging.

Voser said the corporation had to take “stringent measures to further improve our performance” and its “competitive cost position”.

Although the corporation had “some indications that energy demand and pricing are improving,” he said, “the outlook remains very uncertain, and we are not expecting a quick recovery.”

Voser said the reorganisation, due to be completed by the end of the year, was “progressing well” and had already reduced operating costs by $1 billion (0.676 billion euros) in the first nine months of this year.

The energy giant said production in the third quarter amounted to 2.93 million barrels a day, lower than the 3.39 million barrels analysts had counted on.

Shell’s third quarter earnings on a current cost of supplies (CCS) basis were $3 billion (2.03 billion euros) compared with $10.9 billion during the like period last year.

Voser said Shell’s third quarter results “were affected by the weak global economy.”

This was more than the $2.62 billion analysts had predicted. Nevertheless, basic CCS earnings per share decreased by 72 percent versus the like quarter a year ago.

Net profits amounted to $3.2 billion, compared with $8.5 billion in the like period last year.