New Delhi: Global energy giant Shell on Wednesday announced setting up of a global information technology center at Bengaluru to provide IT support to all its business verticals.

"Shell plans to begin operations at the centre later this year," the company said in a statement here.

The centre will provide IT services to all of Shell's businesses upstream oil and gas production, downstream refining and marketing and projects & technology as well as associated support functions. Without giving investment details, the statement said Shell India Markets Pvt Ltd will create the in-house centre, "which is expected to provide employment opportunities for several thousand IT professionals by 2020".

"The investment stems from a review of Shell's global IT projects and selected operations support capability that places greater emphasis on delivering projects in-house," it said, adding that the centre will form an integral part of the firm's global IT project delivery and support network.

Yasmine Hilton, Chairman of Shell Companies in India, said the move will deliver benefits to Shell and India for decades to come. Shell said it selected Bengaluru for its competitiveness and the availability of a skilled, diverse IT talent pool covering the broad range of skills and disciplines that the firm needs worldwide.

"This is an important development for Royal Dutch Shell," said Harry Brekelmans, Shell's Projects & Technology Director.

"Bangalore's significant IT talent will improve our ability to provide top-quality IT project delivery and selected operations support around the world."

Shell already has a Projects and Technology Centre in Bangalore (STCB) employing over 1,000 scientists and engineers. In 2016, STCB will move to a purpose-built, dedicated campus, spread over 52 acres near Devanahalli, close to Bengaluru International Airport. Shell also has a Business Operations Centre based in Chennai, where over 2,000 employees provide business and financial support to Shell companies worldwide.

In India, the company has a lubricants and retail business and is present in integrated gas through its liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at Hazira in Gujarat. Shell recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Andhra Pradesh Gas Development Corporation, GDF Suez and GAIL for setting up a Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) project in Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.