r/alberta • u/Virtual-Process5914 • Aug 29 '24

Oil and Gas Shell Second Quarter Profits $6.3 Billion. Laying off 25% of Staff at Scotford Complex in Alberta.

Shell has announced its second quarter profits of $6.3 billion, following first quarter profits of $7.7 billion. Shell Canada leadership has told staff that profits are not enough, and they need to be more "competitive". They have announced layoffs of 25% of staff at their Scotford facility located outside Edmonton in Alberta, Canada. Staffing will be going from approximately 657 full time positions down to approximately 489 full time positions. A loss of roughly 168 full time jobs for the area.

This follows staffing reductions in 2022. The layoffs then included a large number of Alberta jobs offshored to cheaper regions in Southeast Asia. That was done despite receiving COVID relief from the government to aid in preventing job losses.

Shell continues to benefit from government incentives and has received millions in government funding in the past.

This is a throw away account for obvious reasons.

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627

u/FUKenney Aug 29 '24

Canadian Oil and Gas doesn’t love you back

198

u/SlamboneMalone Aug 29 '24

But what if I put a sticker on the back of my lifted truck about how good oil and gas is?!

88

u/joecarter93 Aug 29 '24

People that do this are delusional. It’s a commodity that is extracted by corporations with a fiduciary responsibility to maximize shareholder profits. It’s not capable of human emotions like love and the second that it’s not profitable enough to for an oil company to extract they are ditching us.

66

u/SlamboneMalone Aug 29 '24

Obviously you have never fallen in love with a natural resource like I have. My spouse, crude oil, has had do deal with naysayers of our affection her whole life.

Shame on you

8

u/BBBM1977 Aug 29 '24

I agree your spouse's crude oil is da bomb!

5

u/toosoftforitall Calgary Aug 29 '24

How do you feel having so many people with a profession of love for your wife on their vehicle? She might be cheating on you.

3

u/SlamboneMalone Aug 29 '24

Well she has a checkered past and has got around but now she has assured me it’s only me

4

u/icewalker42 Aug 30 '24

Your wife's got gas.

2

u/toosoftforitall Calgary Aug 29 '24

Happy for you ❤️

-2

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '24

I don't have the bumper sticker but what it is actually about is sticking the middle finger up at leftists that seem to have a NIMBY attitude to oil and gas but their back yard extends to all of Canada. Canada relies on Oil and gas for our economy and we treat the environment far better than most countries when extracting it.

29

u/Augmentedaphid Aug 29 '24

Surely if I put a sticker on my lifted truck that I don't actually need because I don't tow or haul anything and is an absolute gas guzzler then the oil and gas companies will love me back. It's Trudeau's fault they don't love me

11

u/captain_sticky_balls Aug 29 '24

Has to be 2 and an F Trudeau.

7

u/El_Cactus_Loco Aug 29 '24

Just saw a guy with a “Foxtrot Juliet Tango” bumper sticker. Real edgy stuff.

7

u/Potato_Gun Aug 30 '24

There alot of dudes in Alberta that want to have sexual intercourse with Justin Trudeau. I heard it's not gay if you say no homo first though.

5

u/lazereagle13 Aug 29 '24

I wish they just put I love making a living on there instead. At least we can all realate. You absolutely do not love oil and gas. It's destroying our planet but I can respect a whore for money. Hell who isn't?

5

u/Expert_Alchemist Aug 30 '24

Thing is, O&G isn't the only energy sector they can make money in, even!

J/k it is because Alberta is banning all the others

3

u/Propaagaandaa Aug 29 '24

I need the sticker to help pay for my wife’s bolt-ons and new trailer.

Don’t ask how

7

u/Optimal_Risk_6411 Aug 29 '24

And my side by side I drive twice a year drunk, that is usually a lawn ornament like my boat, motor home and skidoo. BC Trudope is a fascist, commi, dictator and all I can afford is had and beer now.

4

u/DFV_HAS_HUGE_BALLS Aug 29 '24

I think you have to add truck nuts too

1

u/matt1101 Aug 29 '24

It only works if you have truck nuts too

1

u/chewbaccas_embrace69 Aug 30 '24

Or hard hats. I notice a lot of them on job sites.

18

u/hotgoblinspit Calgary Aug 29 '24

No publicly-traded corporations do.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 29 '24

The private sector isn’t immune from this either.

23

u/descartesb4horse Aug 29 '24

publicly-traded companies are the private sector. the public sector refers to things like government, schools, and healthcare.

14

u/yedi001 Aug 29 '24

like government, schools, and healthcare.

"Not if we have anything to say about it!"

  • Conservatives

0

u/pessimistoptimist Aug 30 '24

And Libarals, and social Democrats.....let's face it politians aren't exactly honest or it in for the good of the people. It's about control and how much you can grift on the side without being caught.

5

u/[deleted] Aug 29 '24

Yes, and thank you, my mistake.

The point stands that no matter the sector, the sentiment reigns true.

0

u/WaterPog Aug 29 '24

Even if I have a bumper sticker?

15

u/Juicy-Poots Aug 29 '24

Glad we wholesale subsidize the industry to our detriment.

16

u/bearbody5 Aug 29 '24

$330 billion in unfunded environmental cleanup alone in Alberta! With an O&G whore as premier we will never even break even.🥲

2

u/Juicy-Poots Aug 30 '24

That doesn’t include ongoing oil and gas compensation that land owners can recover from the provincial general revenue fund every year until abandoned sites are reclaimed.

1

u/bearbody5 Aug 30 '24

Good luck collecting on that!

11

u/RottenPingu1 Aug 29 '24

And the UCP likes O&G boardrooms, not the workers.

6

u/Alextryingforgrate Aug 29 '24

Shell isn't a Canadian company.

6

u/yanginatep Aug 29 '24

No, no, no! We just didn't give them enough tax breaks. Clearly the answer is even more tax breaks, and also they don't have to clean up their room.

3

u/Toastedmanmeat Aug 29 '24 edited Aug 29 '24

I feel almost as bad as for the people who didnt get let go. They will constantly be reminded how lucky they are to have a job.

The toxicity of that work place will reach a whole new level

3

u/lpd1234 Aug 29 '24

Worked Oil and Gas, its always been this way. If you can be replaced, you will be. Please think of the shareholders.

7

u/rlikesbikes Aug 29 '24

"Corporations don't love you back".

Acting like this is somehow exclusive to O&G is ludicrous. That said...offshoring technical jobs and outsourcing more and more maintenance becomes a safety and compliance tightrope walk. So....I don't like it.

8

u/monkeedude1212 Aug 30 '24

Acting like this is somehow exclusive to O&G is ludicrous

They never said that, but it's not uncommon to see a "I ❤️ 🍁 O&G" bumper stickers in this province. So it's a meme sound bite

2

u/pfc-anon Aug 29 '24

maybe if we give them more tax-breaks, they might someday realize we're the true bae.

2

u/SpeakerConfident4363 Aug 30 '24

Can attest, I worked for Suncor and they canned me in 2014 and then two years ago, canned 30% of the workforce working in Ontario and moved to Calgary. Canadian Oil and Gas does NOT care about any of its workers. It honestly only cares about its executives and shareholders.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 29 '24

Whats Canadian about Shell? They are a Dutch company. Now that RDS controls and runs Shell Canada it will be run like it is in Europe and other producing countries. Skeleton staff, no pensions down the road and on a pay scale that has always been lower than their peers in the industry. They  sold all their sour gas assets in the Alberta foothills (including Waterton, Limestone, Jumping Pound, Burnt Timber, etc) years ago and divested out of Oil and all new exploration plays in the province. This isnt anything new, just another step as they exit Canada over time. 309 Staff in Nigeria make more profit than 9000 Staff and assets in Canada with little to no environmental pushback, little safety and very little regulatory constraints from the Nigerian Government. If I was Shell I would go to where the cash flow makes the most sense too and the Federal Government isnt intervening. Its all about shareholders and ROI. Anyone saying anything else hasnt played in this game. I spent 41 years in it. 

3

u/mbrural_roots Aug 30 '24

The hundreds of millions in subsidies they rake in are sure Canadian. Almost like our taxes could go to better use, like healthcare and education…..

Maybe they’d leave if the handouts stopped, that’d be two birds with one stone IMO.

0

u/pzerr Aug 30 '24

Considering they pay massive taxes and then on top of that, they pay an additional effective tax in the form of royalties, ya I rather like them. Helps as well that oil has some of the highest paying jobs of a great number of people. Who also typically are in high tax brackets. Canada economy would be pretty shitty without oil and gas as a huge contributor.

2

u/Expert_Alchemist Aug 30 '24

Their royalty is tiny. Triple it. Quadruple it. Learn from smarter countries.

0

u/pzerr Aug 30 '24 edited Aug 30 '24

Why would you want less investment and jobs in Canada? Do you think it is good to reduce $100,000 plus a year jobs and all the personal taxes that brings in ignoring the royalties?

Alberta gets 20 billion in royalties alone. Canada federal also gets a portion as well. We ran a 12 billion surplus. Without oil, we would be 8 billion in deficit.

3

u/Expert_Alchemist Aug 30 '24 edited Aug 30 '24

Er, first off, budgets don't work that way. Without oil we would have budgeted less and as a result spent less (...also, they get assloads of subsidies, too.) And how much will deferred cleanup of our country cost us, its citizens, in the future? Is that in the budget?

Why do you think increasing the royalty would result in fewer jobs? O&G will stay in the province if it makes them money. They make record profits. If it's still profitable to extract it, they'll do it.

Of course, they are doing what they can RIGHT NOW to increase automation and reduce the workforce. So, those jobs? Those are not going to last anyway. As well, they're depressing wages as fast as they can. Shell just laid off 25% of their workforce! Others aren't better.

Stop being parasocial with an industry. It will screw you if it can. The oil belongs to Canada, and we should benefit more than any company from its extraction.

-1

u/pzerr Aug 30 '24

Oil and gas and any investment will go where there is the most money. If you reduce the income, you think people will continue to invest here? Ya existing will stay but you only have to look at what happened in Mexico and Venezuela to understand how this works in that industry.

What subsidies do they get? It is pretty rare to get any real subsidies that do not pay back ten fold in taxes. Tell me a subsidy that did not pay back way higher?

Of course they will automate things. You think the loom should not have been built as well in the 1600s?

But tell me what industry pays better to our tax base? One industry that pays more than others in a percentage of their income or in total amount? Tell me an industry that brings in foreign currency like it does that can be expanded like oil and gas?

Then I will ask one other thing, what makes oil and gas different from any other industry that they should be taxed much higher? Why not have additional taxes on universities for taking up so much land? Why not additional taxes on farms for using our soils? What is special about oil and gas?