Royal Dutch Shell will cut spending by a fifth and lay off staff at its American exploration and production business, the company said on Thursday, in another sign that oil majors are struggling to profit from the booming U.S. shale sector.Oil and natural gas pumped from North American shale have proved a boon for many smaller energy businesses, but the world's biggest oil companies, including BP and Exxon Mobil, have had less success unlocking the prolific rock's full potential.London-based BP announced last week that it is to spin off its onshore U.S. oil and gas assets into a separate business to improve performance."Financial performance there is frankly not acceptable ... some of our exploration bets have simply not worked out," said Ben van Beurden, who was head of refining before being promoted to Shell's top job at the start of the year.
Exxon Mobil Corporation is a manufacturer and marketer of commodity petrochemicals, including olefins, aromatics, polyethylene and polypropylene plastics and a range of specialty products. Shares of XOM fell by 0.5% or $-0.47/share to $93.74. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $84.79 and as high as $101.74. On average, 12823700 shares of XOM exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 5743364.
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