SHELL WILL CUT 250

Royal Dutch Shell will cut around 250 jobs at its onshore North Sea oil operations in Aberdeen, Scotland as part of a business restructuring, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The oil and gas company said the job reductions in Aberdeen will be implemented by the end of 2014 as it "reorganising its upstream onshore operations, to better serve the needs of its offshore facilities and to build a stronger long-term business in the North Sea," a spokesman said.

Shell employs around 4,500 staff at its upstream operations in Scotland as well as an additional 1,000 service contractors.

Shell's announcement follows a similar move in June by Chevron, which announced it would cut around 225 jobs in its North Sea operations. Shell is in the midst of a cost-cutting drive to boost revenue that will include the sale of $15 billion-worth (8.95 billion pounds) of assets around the world, including North Sea operations.

reuters.com