Trim

TXU Energy, the largest retail electric provider (REP) in Texas, announced last week it will lay off about 20% of its workforce, or 65 employees, in an effort to trim costs. The news follows the resignation in late November by a top executive at Reliant Energy Inc., the state’s second largest REP.

Dynegy Inc. managed to trim its losses in 2004 compared to the previous year, but the company’s share price slid Thursday after it announced it will lose more in 2005 than it forecast two months ago. The Houston-based company also reported a 4Q2004 net loss of $171 million (minus 47 cents/share) — about $50 million more than Wall Street had forecast — compared with a loss of $554 million (minus $1.49) for 4Q2003.

Dynegy Inc. managed to trim its losses in 2004 compared to the previous year, but its stock price slid nearly 6% early Thursday after the company said it would lose more in 2005 than it forecast two months ago. The Houston-based company also reported a 4Q2004 net loss of $171 million (minus 47 cents/share) — about $50 million more than Wall Street had forecast — compared with a loss of $554 million (minus $1.49) for 4Q2003.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group announced over the weekend it will trim jobs in Nigeria as it reevaluates its oil and gas reserves there. The British press also reported Monday that shareholders are pressuring the energy giant to hire outside executives to help move the company forward.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group’s managing director on Wednesday said the oil major plans to trim between $500 million and $800 million of costs and cut staff 15% over the next four years within its oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) business worldwide. Walter van de Vijver also confirmed that Shell has targeted nearly $500 million in assets worldwide this year, including some in the United States and Gulf of Mexico.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group’s managing director on Wednesday said the oil major plans to trim between $500 million and $800 million of costs and cut staff 15% over the next four years within its oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) business worldwide. Walter van de Vijver also confirmed that Shell has targeted nearly $500 million in assets worldwide this year, including some in the United States and Gulf of Mexico.

Unocal Corp. said it will cut about 200 positions from its Gulf Coast region exploration and production operations, which will reduce its total work force by about 7%, as part of a restructuring operation designed to improve its overall cost structure and profitability and better position the unit for ongoing exploratory success. The program also is expected to include some asset sales in the region by the end of the year.

With natural-gas industry attention increasingly focused on costs in Canada, Westcoast Energy Inc. pared 20% off the price tag for its 200 MMcf/d expansion project on its mainline in British Columbia. The subsidiary of Duke Energy cut the budget to C$270 million (US$175 million) from C$338 million (US$220 million) without cutting the amount of the added capacity by making a deal with another B.C. pipeline.

Williams says it plans to offer early retirement packages to approximately 450 employees, or about 4% of its worldwide work force, in order to eliminate the duplication in its human resources, information technology and finance departments.