All the senior managers at Royal Dutch Shell have been made to re-apply for their positions and 150 of them have lost their jobs, the company revealed on Friday as it warned of substantial further job cuts spreading across the group.

The 750 executives in what is called the EC-2 level, two steps down from the top executive committee, have been cut to 600 in the shake-up launched by Peter Voser (pictured right), the new chief executive who took over at the beginning of the month.