Exxon Mobil Corp. said on Tuesday that it will cut roughly 2,000 jobs worldwide as the Texas-based energy giant consolidates offices and deepens a multiyear restructuring plan aimed at streamlining operations.
The reductions amount to about 3% to 4% of Exxon’s global workforce.
In a memo to employees, Chief Executive Darren Woods framed the move as part of the company’s “tough decisions” designed to sharpen its competitiveness and widen its lead over rivals.
“These changes will further strengthen our advantages and grow the gap with our competition, helping to keep us in the lead for decades to come,” Woods wrote. The company declined to comment further.
The announcement follows a wave of layoffs across the oil and gas sector as companies respond to volatile crude prices and increased output from OPEC and its allies. Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP have all disclosed similar cuts in recent months. But Exxon’s job reductions stem less from price pressures and more from an internal restructuring Woods launched in 2019 to simplify a sprawling corporate footprint dating back to the 1999 merger with Mobil.
Calgary-based Imperial Oil Ltd., nearly 70% owned by Exxon, disclosed on Monday that it would reduce its workforce by 20%.
Woods has worked to collapse layers of bureaucracy that left Exxon with nine semi-independent functional units when he became chief executive in 2017. Those have since been consolidated into three divisions: production, refining and low-carbon that share centralized services including engineering, IT and project management.
The shift has already produced substantial cost savings. Exxon says it has cut $13.5 billion in annual expenses since 2019, more than any other international oil major, and aims to boost that figure by 30 per cent by the end of the decade. Some savings have come from asset sales and headcount reductions, but the company argues efficiencies have also improved performance, citing better maintenance at key facilities and broader adoption of best practices across business units.
As part of the restructuring, Exxon is consolidating smaller offices into regional hubs aligned with its major growth priorities. These include offshore oil projects in Guyana, liquefied natural gas along the U.S. Gulf Coast, and global trading operations. The company recently said employees in Brussels and Leatherhead, outside London, will be relocated to central London, where many of its traders are already based.
The cuts show the scale of change sweeping the energy industry as companies balance near-term cost pressures with longer-term transitions. For Exxon, the restructuring marks one of the most significant overhauls since its creation more than two decades ago, one that Woods insists will leave the company leaner, more integrated and better positioned for the years ahead.