Reports on Friday indicated the gas giant waslooking to chop 300 jobs at its Reading facility with positions also to be shedat its Queensland Curtis liquefied natural gas (QCLNG) project in Australia.

A UK-based spokesperson confirmed to Upstreamon Friday that UK-contracted staff in Reading, where there are 1100 employees,are being offered voluntary redundancy.

“To be clear, it is an entirely voluntaryprocess, no decisions have been made and there is no target for the number ofapplications,” the company said.

“The