WORKERS at Shell’s Stanlow refinery face more uncertainty after the oil giant today announced another 1,000 job cuts.

The group, which employs 900 of its 100,000-strong global workforce at Stanlow, cut 5,000 posts last year and had already announced a further 1,000 job losses for this year.

Shell chief executive Peter Voser said the group would axe another 1,000 posts by the end of 2011 as he presented his strategic update for the firm.

He said: “The company had become too complicated and slower to respond than we’d like. So we are sharpening up.”

Shell gave no details on where the cuts would fall. It employs around 8,500 staff in the UK at sites including Aberdeen, London and the Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port, which is up for sale.

Mr Voser said Shell is entering a “new period of growth” as he pledged to turn around years of underperformance and grow production 11% to 3.5 million barrels a day by 2012.

Shell is still in talks with a possible Indian-based buyer of its refinery at Stanlow, in Cheshire. Negotiations between Shell and Essar began in October last year over a possible sale of Stanlow and two German refineries.

Stanlow employs 900 people and processes 233,000 barrels of oil a day. Shell plans to sell about 15% of its global refining capacity, or about 600,000 barrels a day, in the next few years as part of a restructuring programme aimed at improving profitability and efficiency.