A day after Imperial Oil announced that it plans to cut its workforce by 20 per cent, its parent company, Houston-based ExxonMobil, announced Tuesday that it will lay off 2,000 workers as part of a long-term restructuring plan.
The company said in February that it was merging some business units as part of an effort to cut annual costs by US$9 billion by 2023 from 2019 levels.
Citing an internal memo, Bloomberg News said the job cuts represent about three to four per cent of ExxonMobil’s global workforce.
The layoffs announced on Monday by Calgary-based Imperial Oil, of which ExxonMobil is a majority owner, account for about half of the broader cuts, a company spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday.
About 1,200 positions will also be cut in Norway and European Union countries by the end of 2027, ExxonMobil said in a statement.
There are no planned job cuts in the U.S.
ExxonMobil employed 61,000 people globally at the end of 2024, according to a regulatory filing.
Crude oil prices are down about 10 per cent so far this year because of increased global supply.
AP Photo/Eric Gay, File
Faced with a slump in global crude oil prices as the OPEC+ group of oil producers has increased output, energy companies have announced thousands of job cuts this year to rein in costs while they contend with lower profits.
Get weekly money news
Get expert insights, Q&A on markets, housing, inflation, and personal finance information delivered to you every Saturday.
ExxonMobil said it aimed to improve efficiency by having employees work from the same locations.
“Our global office network was established decades ago under very different circumstances,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
“To support the collaboration so critical to our success, we are aligning our global footprint with our operating model and bringing our teams together.”
ExxonMobil said it will build a new office at its Antwerp refinery in Belgium that will house a new European Technology Centre and most Brussels-based employees.
It will close some smaller offices across the EU.
The job cuts in Europe come as ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods has stepped up criticism against an EU corporate sustainability law that threatens a fine of five per cent of global sales if companies do not identify and fix environmental issues within their supply chains.
In an interview with Reuters earlier this month, Woods said the law would lead to more businesses leaving Europe and called for the regulation to be revoked.
“The business and regulatory environment in Europe is challenging and this transformation will help us compete into the future,” ExxonMobil Europe president Philippe Ducom said in the statement on Tuesday, adding that the company would still maintain a meaningful presence in what it said is an important market.
The announcement of job cuts at ExxonMobil comes a day after Calgary-based subsidiary Imperial Oil announced plans to cut its workforce by 20 per cent. The company employs about 5,100 people in Canada.
Global News
Globally, oil producers are increasingly consolidating office locations to work more efficiently and save money.
Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil producer after ExxonMobil, said in February that it would lay off up to 20 per cent of its global workforce and expand the use of global centres, which includes an engineering hub in Bengaluru.
ConocoPhillips, which employs 13,000 people globally, including about 950 in Canada, also said earlier this month that it would cut 20 to 25 per cent of its employees.
U.S. oil and gas production jobs fell by 4,700 in the first six months of this year, with several industry executives reporting significant delays in investment decisions due to price volatility and persistent demand uncertainty tied to U.S. trade policies.
Crude futures are down about 10.5 per cent this year, with West Texas crude selling at less than US$63 per barrel and Western Canada Select trading at around US$51 per barrel on Tuesday.
— with files from Global News.
