* Shell cuts 2015 capex by another $3 bln to $30 bln
* Plans $50 bln asset disposals between 2014-2018
* Q2 profit drops 37 percent after oil price slump
* Shares up 4.7 pct, bouncing from year's low (Recasts, adds quotes, updates shares)
By Ron Bousso and Karolin Schaps
LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell is toaxe 6,500 jobs this year and step up spending cuts as it seeksto reassure investors it can withstand an extended period oflower oil prices, even through its planned $70 billionacquisition of BG Group.
The Anglo-Dutch company also announced plans to raise $50billion from asset sales between 2014 and 2018 after itssecond-quarter profit dropped by 37 percent. (http://link.reuters.com/ren35w)
"Perhaps we left the impression that we will wait for thecavalry to arrive in the form of higher oil prices and that wewere going to be lazy in terms of cost takeout," Chief ExecutiveOfficer Ben van Beurden said on Thursday.
"But what we also said at the time (of the BG dealannouncement), perhaps not skilfully enough and not loud enough,is judge us on what we do and that is what today's message isall about."
Shell said it anticipated 6,500 staff and direct contractorreductions globally in 2015 from a total of nearly 100,000employees, as it grapples with a halving in oil prices to around$55 per barrel in a year.
Like rivals BP, Statoil and Total it announced reductions in capital investments for a second timethis year, shaving another $3 billion off its 2015 budget tobring it to $30 billion.
Around 20 to 30 percent of the $30 billion of asset salesexpected between 2016 and 2018 will come from the downstream andmidstream businesses, Shell said, leaving the expanded Shell-BGgroup to focus on fewer but larger and more competitive assets.
Shell will only make two major investment decisions thisyear, with many projects scaled back, delayed or cancelled, vanBeurden said. He hinted at further spending cuts if economicconditions worsened, including a steeper drop in oil prices.
The company said it was selling a 33 percent stake in theShowa Shell refinery in Japan to Idemitsu for about $1.4billion.
BG DEAL
Shell also reassured wary investors its bumper BG purchasewould not break the bank. If the deal goes through in early 2016as planned, capital investments in 2016 will be $35 billion,Shell said, lower than the $42 to $40 billion analysts expected.
"This should be well received as Shell has suffered from aperception that its capital discipline has been poor relative topeers and that the BG deal was struck assuming higher oilprices, while synergies were limited," investment bank Tudor,Pickering, Holt & Co said.
Shell is still awaiting regulatory approvals for the dealfrom the European Union, China and Australia, after Brazil, theUnited States and South Korea cleared it.
The deal is expected to generate pretax benefits of around$2.5 billion per year starting 2018. The tie-up will turn Shellinto the world's leading liquefied natural gas company and oneof the largest deepwater oil producers with a focus on Brazil.
Shell's second-quarter "cost of supplies" earnings excludingidentified items -- the company's definition of net income --came in at $3.84 billion, down from $6.13 billion a year earlierand $3.25 billion in the previous quarter. That beatexpectations of $3.18 billion, according to an analyst consensusprovided by the company.
Shell shares, which fell earlier this week to their lowestthis year, were trading up 4.7 percent at 1300 GMT, while theEuropean oil and gas sector was up 2.9 percent.
A sharp decline of around 75 percent in revenue from oilproduction was once again offset by refining and trading, whereearnings more than doubled from a year earlier.
Shell maintained its quarterly dividend at 47 cents pershare and committed to rewarding shareholders with at least thesame payout in 2016. (Editing by Jane Merriman, David Holmes and Mark Potter)
