Energy major Shell unleashed Wednesday a major restructuring to combat plunging oil prices driven by the coronavirus pandemic, warning it will also spark more asset writedowns in the third quarter.

Royal Dutch Shell said in a statement that it would ax between 7,000 and 9,000 positions by the end of 2022, of which 1,500 staff have already agreed to take voluntary redundancy this year.

The job cuts would amount to roughly 10 percent of Shell's total global workforce of 80,000 staff across more than 70 countries.

The Anglo-Dutch giant aims to generate annual savings of between $2.0 billion and $2.5 billion (1.7-2.1 billion euros) under the plan, which also includes other measures to streamline the business in response to the fallout from the COVID-19 crisis.

Shell had already flagged in July that job cuts were in the pipeline after posting a colossal $18.1-billion second-quarter net loss as coronavirus savaged the world oil market.

"This is an extremely tough process. It is very painful to know that you will end up saying goodbye to quite a few good people," said Chief Executive Ben van Beurden in an interview on the company website.

Shell's main British rival BP is axing around 10,000 jobs or 15 percent of its total workforce in response to the virus turmoil.

Fuel sales recovery

In an operations update, Shell also said its oil and gas production was set to drop sharply in the third quarter to around 3.05 million barrels of oil equivalent per day due to lower output as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and hurricanes that forced offshore platforms to shut down.

As the world's largest fuel retailer, Shell saw a recovery in fuel sales in the third quarter from lows hit in the previous quarter as some countries gradually emerged from lockdown measures.

In the second quarter, Shell narrowly avoided its first quarterly loss in recent history, helped by booming trading business. However, it announced nearly 16.8 billion U.S. dollars in impairment charges after sharply lowering its outlook for oil and gas prices in the wake of the pandemic.

(With input from agencies)