Mobil Corp. Announces Elimination of 4,700 Jobs : Corporate: The No. 2 U.S. oil company is continuing a worldwide restructuring aimed at keeping it competitive.
Mobil Corp. will eliminate 4,700 jobs in a worldwide restructuring aimed at keeping it competitive with other big oil companies that have slashed payrolls and costs.
Mobil said Monday that the cutbacks will save more than $1 billion a year when they are fully implemented by the end of 1996.
The country’s second-largest oil company has about 50,300 employees around the world. The company, based in Fairfax, will cut 4,000 jobs from its 14,500-member administrative work force and 700 jobs in its refining and marketing businesses.
“We are in a fiercely competitive business environment, and changes in the way we run our business are essential to our future,” Chairman Lucio A. Noto said.
Mobil has pared its work force by more than 10,000 since 1991, including a reduction of 2,300 jobs in its chemical business in June.
“A lot of the tasks we are used to doing we will just stop doing,” Mobil spokesman John Lord said.
Analysts applauded the plan.
“This is not just a head-count reduction,” said Eugene Nowak, senior oil analyst for Dean Witter Reynolds in New York. “When they complete this restructuring, they will emerge as a more flexible and profit-oriented company.”
Other big oil companies have also announced significant cutbacks over the past year. Unocal Corp. said in November that it would cut 630 corporate staff jobs over two years; Amoco Corp. slashed 4,500 jobs; Texaco Inc. cut 2,500 positions, and Atlantic Richfield Co. eliminated 2,000 jobs.
Mobil, which produces, transports, refines and markets petroleum, natural gas and related products, posted $59.6 billion in sales in 1994.
Mobil said the changes will result in a $300-million charge against second-quarter profit. The company earned $198 million, or 46 cents a share, in the April-June period last year after restructuring charges.
Mobil stock rose $3.875 a share to $98.75 on the New York Stock Exchange.
