Exxon plans to cut about 2,000 jobs worldwide as part of its years-long effort to streamline operations and consolidate smaller offices into regional hubs, according to Bloomberg.

The reductions, equal to roughly 3%–4% of its workforce, were announced in a memo to employees from CEO Darren Woods on Tuesday.

Bloomberg writes that Exxon received attention Monday when Imperial Oil Ltd. — nearly 70% owned by Exxon — disclosed it would reduce its workforce by 20%. Combined, the moves highlight a sweeping restructuring effort that Woods has pursued since 2019 to simplify Exxon’s sprawling global footprint, a legacy of its merger with Mobil two decades ago.

Woods said the company is making “tough decisions” to sharpen competitiveness. “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 told employees.

The company declined to comment beyond the memo, but noted that its new hubs will focus on growth areas like oil in Guyana, liquefied natural gas along the Gulf Coast, and global trading. As part of the shift, employees in Brussels and Leatherhead, U.K., are being moved to central London to align with the firm’s trading operations.

When Woods took over in 2017, Exxon had nine semi-independent units that created layers of bureaucracy and duplication. Now the company operates with three divisions — production, refining, and low-carbon — supported by shared services such as IT and engineering. That structure has already helped Exxon cut $13.5 billion in annual costs, more than all other international oil majors combined. The company, which employed 61,000 people at the end of 2024, expects to boost savings another 30% by 2030.

Exxon is hardly alone in trimming staff. As we have noted over the past few months...Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and BP have also each announced thousands of job cuts in recent months as crude prices faltered under pressure from OPEC and its allies.