Oil giant Shell is in talks to outsource most of its IT support in an attempt to improve the efficiency of its organisation and drive down costs, it has been reported.

No contracts have yet been signed, although it is believed that the multi-national firm is looking to outsource its end-user computing services, managed hosting, storage and network services.

If a deal is completed, it is estimated to save Shell around £250 million a year.

A spokesperson for Shell told tech website Silicon: "We have been working on simplifying the organisation and generating efficiencies since at least 2005.

"Our IT infrastructure sourcing programme was launched to review the feasibility of outsourcing a substantial part of Shell's global IT Infrastructure services to a limited number of key suppliers."

Around 3,200 Shell staff and contractors are expected to be affected by the switch if it goes ahead, with some ten per cent of these workers based in the UK.