Royal Dutch Shell is to cut between 7,000 and 9,000 jobs by 2022 as the company strives to become a ‘net-zero emissions’ energy business.

The job cuts, including 1,500 people who have agreed to take voluntary redundancy this year, will be made as part of an ongoing structuring process which will lead to a simpler, streamlined and lower-cost organisation, Shell said in its third-quarterly update.

In particular, the company will reduce its refining operations to less than 10 sites in key locations. The gas arm will have a larger focus and Shell will provide lower and zero carbon solutions through its integrated power, biofuels and hydrogen businesses.

By making the organisation simpler, Shell said it hopes to deliver annual cost savings of between $2bn and $2.5bn a year.

Shell currently has a workforce of 83,000 people, of whom around 10,000 are in the Netherlands, mainly at the headquarters in The Hague and at the Pernis petro-chemicals site.

Chief executive Ben Burden had said earlier this year that a reorganisation was on the cards.

‘We have set ourselves the aim of being a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050,’ he said in an interview on the company website.’If we want to get there, if we want to succeed as an integral part of a society heading towards net-zero emissions, now is the time to accelerate. That is what we are doing.’