Shell and TXU pick up the pace

THE ENERGY sector's inexorable drift towards outsourcing non-core functions and contracting services providers in countries with low labour costs continued last month, with major deals involving Royal Dutch/Shell and the US' TXU. Shell, which has been slow to jump on the outsourcing bandwagon, signed separate deals to transfer some of its information technology (IT) services to IBM India and Bangalore-based Wipro Technologies. The agreements form part of a plan to cut IT costs by $0.85bn a year before 2009, which will involve lowering its global IT headcount by 20-30%—between 1,900 and 2,800 staff—either by outsourcing jobs or making employees redundant. Meanwhile, TXU and consultants Capgem