Energy company Shell has signed $4bn-worth (£2bn) of IT services outsourcing contracts.

The deals will free up Shell's IT staff to help the business progress, said Alan Matula, Shell’s chief information officer. The contracts begin on 1 July 2008.

"This deal is a major strategic choice for Shell. Partnering with EDS, T-Systems and AT&T gives us greater ability to respond to the growing demands of our businesses," he said.

"It allows Shell IT to focus on information technology that drives competitive position in the oil and gas market, while suppliers focus on improving essential IT capability."

A $1.6bn (£800m) deal with AT&T covers communications services including voice over IP (VoIP) for 1500 locations, including managing more than 600 separate third- party contracts with local communications suppliers.

The contract also includes running Shell's vVirtual private network service for more than 50,000 remote workers.

A $1bn (£500m) deal with EDS will see the supplier manage Shell’s end-user computing services including desktop, service desk, on-site services, back-up and disaster recovery, mobile information protection and managed messaging services.

And a $1bn (£700m) contract with T-Systems, an arm of Deutsche Telekom, will provide web hosting and storage services.

Shell will transfer the majority of the 1,800 full time IT staff and 1,100 contractors to the service providers.

Around 1,500 Shell IT staff and contractors will join EDS, 900 Shell staff will transfer to T-Systems and 560 to AT&T.