Vicegrip's Journal: Shell cuts 2,800 technology jobs

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3665193.stm

Shell's image has suffered with investors in recent months
Royal Dutch Shell has said it will cut up to 2,800 jobs in its technology division over the next three years.

The world's third-largest oil firm said the cutbacks were unrelated to its recent problems how it accounted for its proven oil reserves.

The division affected has sites in Britain, the Netherlands and US. Some jobs will be outsourced to India and Malaysia, Shell says.

A spokeswoman said the move was "about developing Shell's IT efficiency".

In recent weeks Shell's chairman, its head of exploration and its finance chief all resigned after the company admitted that it had massively overstated its proven reserves of crude oil.

According to an internal, but independent report Shell executives knowingly hid the company's oil and gas shortfalls as far back as 2001.

The report firmly placed the blame on the shoulders of former chairman Sir Philip Watts and oil and gas chief Walter van de Vijver, who both resigned in March over a 20% downgrade of the firm's reserves.

Earlier this month Shell's finance chief Judy Boynton became the third casualty of the company's reserves crisis.

Shell is now under investigation by the UK's financial watchdog, the FSA, and in the United States by both the Securities & Exchange Commission and the Justice Department.