Shell pumps out profits of £2.7bn

The firm announced a 34 per cent jump in profits to £2.7 billion accompanied by a 5 per cent increase in production for the second quarter and added that its plans to axe 7,000 employees was progressing faster than expected.

Shell chief executive Peter Voser claimed the firm was "putting the priority on a sharper delivery of our strategy, aiming for profitable growth and a more competitive performance."

But oil workers' union representatives and human rights campaigners said the firm's profits come at the expense of its workforce and continuing human rights abuses overseas.

RMT offshore energy section regional organiser Jake Malloy said: "It is typical of this industry. It seems that the better the guys at the sharp end do their jobs the more the companies want.

"On the back of exemplary efforts by the workers, big oil companies like Shell and BP look to cut jobs with only one objective - to put money in the pockets of their shareholders."

The firm recently added to its gas interests in the US and began production from its Gbaran-Ubie oil and gas project in Nigeria, which will produce 70,000 barrels of oil a day when fully operational.

Shell has been the subject of international opprobium over its operations in areas such as the Niger Delta, with allegations of complicity in human rights abuses and horrendous environmental pollution.

In June 2009, the oil giant paid out $15.5 million (£10m) to Nigerian campaigners to halt a New York trial over allegations that it was complicit in the state murder of nine anti-Shell activists, including author Ken Saro-Wiwa and the torture of many more during the 1990s in the Niger Delta.

Remember Saro-Wiwa campaign spokesman Ben Amunwa told the Star: "Even as the world recoils in horror at the BP oil spill disaster, Shell plans to drill in even deeper waters, claiming it has better and safer standards than BP.

"Yet Shell's appalling record of managing environmental risks is abundantly clear in Nigeria, where a combination of daily oil spills and toxic gas flaring continue to devastate the sensitive ecosystem and violate human rights in the Niger Delta region.

"Local farming and fishing communities have seen crops fail and fish ponds die under oil slicks. Non-violent protesters are frequently targeted by security forces notorious for extra-judicial killings, who are still paid by Shell, Chevron and other oil companies. This destructive impact is what an unregulated oil industry driven by huge profits really looks like."