Exxon Mobil offers voluntary redundancy for Australian employees

(Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp said on Wednesday that it has started a voluntary redundancy programme for its Australian employees, in a bid to ensure it gets through “unprecedented” market conditions.

The programme is being offered to all employees in Melbourne, Gippsland, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, Exxon said in a statement.

Exxon’s spokesman in Australia declined to comment on what percentage of staff the company was aiming to cut.

The news comes after Reuters reported last week the U.S. oil company was preparing deep spending and job cuts, as it fights to preserve an 8% shareholder dividend with a multi-billion-dollar quarterly loss looming.

(Reporting by Rashmi Ashok in Bengaluru and Sonali Paul in Melbourne; Editing by Himani Sarkar)