Shell is axing 6,500 staff and selling $20 billion in assets to compete with the oil price slump

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell just announced its Q2 results - and though they're better than expected, the firm is taking an axe to costs anyway.

Here's what you need to know:

• Adjusted earnings have slumped from last year, down 37% to $3.8 billion (£2.44 billion). That's still better than the $3.4 billion analysts expected.
• Revenue for the first half of the year is down from $220.9 billion (£141.66 billion) in 2014 to $138.1 billion (£88.56 billion) this year.
• 6,500 jobs will be cut across the board.
• Capital investment has been cut by a fifth, down $7 billion (£4.49 billion).
• They're selling $20 billion (£12.83 billion) in assets over 2014-15.

The general message today from Shell is that even though they expect oil prices to bounce back, they're still cutting costs pretty sharply. They're also happy with progress on their takeover of BG, another huge oil firm, which was announced in April this year.

Here's what CEO Ben van Beurden had to say:

"We have to be resilient in a world where oil prices remain low for some time, whilst keeping an eye on recovery. We're taking a prudent approach, pulling on powerful financial levers to manage through this downturn, always making sure we have the capacity to pay attractive dividends for shareholders."

We'll give you an update on how markets are taking the results once they open.

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