ExxonMobil Firing 2,000 Employees Amid Major Restructuring

Oil major ExxonMobil is about to cut 2,000 jobs globally as the Texas oil company consolidates smaller offices into regional hubs as part of its long-term.

The reductions represent about three to four per cent of Exxon’s global workforce and are part of the company’s ongoing efficiency drive, chief executive officer Darren Woods said in a memo to employees Tuesday. Calgary-based Imperial Oil Ltd., which is nearly 70 per cent owned by Exxon, announced Monday it is cutting 20 per cent of its workforce.

Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, and BP Plc are among the major oil companies that have also announced thousands of job cuts in recent months as crude prices tumbled this year in response to increased supplies from OPEC and its allies.

Exxon, however, has been on a major internal restructuring push since 2019 as Woods sought to simplify the company’s sprawling global footprint, which resulted from the merger with Mobil two decades ago.

Exxon is making “tough decisions” that build upon a years-long effort to improve competitiveness, Woods said in the memo. “The changes we’ve announced today will further strengthen our advantages and grow the gap with our competition, helping to keep us in the lead for decades to come,” he said.

Exxon declined to comment beyond the employee memo.

The regional hubs will focus on Exxon’s major growth initiatives, such as oil in Guyana, liquefied natural gas along the Gulf Coast and trading globally. For example, the company recently announced plans to move employees from Brussels and Leatherhead, UK, to central London, where many of its traders are based.

When Woods took over in 2017, Exxon had nine functional companies that operated relatively independently from one another, creating layers of bureaucracy and duplicating support services. The company now has three main divisions — production, refining, and low-carbon — all of which share services like engineering, IT, and project management.

According to the company, the changes have helped Exxon cut $13.5 billion of annual costs since 2019, more than all other international oil majors combined. It plans to increase this figure by 30 per cent by the end of the decade.

Some savings have come through asset sales and workforce reductions, but Woods has said the changes have also led to better performance. For example, improved maintenance of major facilities and better sharing of best practices between business units.