Royal Dutch Shell will leave up to 10 countries by stopping the oil and gas activity there, in an attempt to increase the spending cuts and narrow the focus after the acquisition of BG Group for $ 54 billion.
When presenting the strategy after the close of the deal in February, the Anglo-Dutch company has announced plans for annual expenditure at the level of $ 25-30 billion before the end of the decade.
Shell for the third time has reduced planned capital expenditures for 2016 to $ 29 billion from the original $ 35 billion.
The company raised its target level of savings from the integration of BG to $ 4.5 billion, which is $ 1 billion more than in the previous forecast.
CEO Ben van Beerden hopes that the new cuts will support Shell shares that show lower dynamics in comparison to the rivals.
According to him, the company will focus on short-term growth of deepwater projects in Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico.
"Today we intend Shell transformation" - Van Beerden said.
According to the company, the reduction of costs and the sale of assets may increase the return on equity to 10 % around the end of the decade, when the price of oil will be at $ 60 a barrel, from about 8 % in 2013-2015.
The main source of cost reduction, in addition to the dismissal of 12500 employees this year, will be the operations in Australia, Brazil and the North Sea.
Shell plans to sell assets at $ 30 billion worldwide by 2018 approximately and leave for 5 to 10 countries to reduce the proportion of borrowed funds, which rose to 26 % after the deal with BG.
The company did not specify from which countries it can go. Earlier, Reuters reported that Shell plans to cease operations in Gabon.