What exactly are international oil companies changing through organizational transformation? A breakdown of three key moves by Shell, BP, and ExxonMobil

From 2025 to 2026, Shell abolished its headquarters’ 'Projects & Technology Division' and integrated it into business lines; BP streamlined its three major business segments into two—Upstream and Downstream; ExxonMobil established a new Global Operations function to centrally coordinate resources across its three business segments. These three global oil majors—unanimously and independently—are pursuing one overarching objective: realigning their organizational structures to refocus on value creation. A newly released article by China Zhongzhi Consulting systematically dissects the three core themes underpinning this wave of transformation: structural reorganization, digital empowerment, and shared collaboration. Persistent volatility in global energy prices, coupled with lengthening return-on-investment cycles and heightened uncertainty in new-energy investments, is driving international oil majors to shift from the aggressive expansion of recent years toward more pragmatic operational optimization. A profound organizational transformation—centered on 'value creation'—is now unfolding across the global energy industry. This article selects three representative international oil companies—ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP—and systematically reviews their recent practices in organizational restructuring, digital transformation, and shared services. It distills three key trends characterizing this round of organizational change: organizational restructuring, intelligent digital empowerment, and shared collaboration—offering reference and insights for state-owned energy enterprises undergoing organizational transformation under evolving circumstances. ExxonMobil: Centralized Global Operations, Collaborative Digital Management, and Value-Oriented Shared Services Centralized Global Operations: Establishment of a Global Operations function to centralize management of production operations, project management, and supply chain management. To eliminate long-standing resource fragmentation and inconsistencies in execution standards across its three business segments—Upstream, Products Solutions, and Low-Carbon Solutions—ExxonMobil established the 'ExxonMobil Global Operations' function as an independent organization at its headquarters in Texas, USA, in November 2025. Decision-making authority and scheduling control over production, project management, and supply chain management were consolidated at the global level. The core intent of this move is to shift from 'segment autonomy' to 'end-to-end integration', enabling cross-business-line coordination for major investment decisions, capacity allocation, and emergency response—fundamentally enhancing asset utilization efficiency and global responsiveness. Collaborative Digital Management: Formation of a coordinated organizational structure comprising a 'Central Data Office (CDO)' and 'Global Digital Technology Centers'. To break down data silos and build a new 'data-driven operations' neural center, ExxonMobil established its Central Data Office in Houston in May 2023, tasked with unifying the foundational data architecture and global data standards, and entrusted with data sovereignty and governance rules. Building upon the CDO’s established data foundation, the company decentralized digital capabilities to its global technical centers in 2024, forming a distributed collaborative model. Among these, the Bangalore Technology Center in India has been designated as ExxonMobil’s third global technology hub—after Houston and Sarnia—with a focus on localized innovation integrating AI and domain-specific energy knowledge. It collaborates with universities to cultivate talent, aiming to solve the 'last-mile' challenge of AI adoption in the energy sector. The Kuala Lumpur Center leverages digital twin and cloud infrastructure to deliver global remote engineering support. The deeper strategic purpose of this setup is to ensure data strategy maintains centralized authority while retaining regional adaptability. Value-Oriented Shared Services: Transitioning from transactional support to end-to-end partnership relationships. Initially, the Curitiba Center handled only standardized processes such as finance and IT, delivering value primarily through cost reduction.

ExxonMobil plans to establish a single North American research and technology center in Houston, USA

ExxonMobil plans to establish a single North American research and technology center at its Houston, USA, headquarters—resulting in the closure of its campuses in Clinton, New Jersey, and Sarnia, Ontario. Emily Mir, an ExxonMobil spokesperson, stated that the closures will affect approximately 700 employees, most of whom will relocate to Houston. These measures will be implemented in phases and fully completed by 2028. Mir said: “We are excited that our North American technology organization will work more effectively alongside our business lines to develop and commercialize industry-leading technologies. This move will expand our research capabilities and lay the foundation for future growth.” Over the past four years, ExxonMobil has streamlined multiple business units, divested assets, and reduced headcount—part of its broader plan to cut $15 billion in costs by 2027 compared to 2019 levels. At present, two-thirds of this cost-reduction target remains to be achieved.

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