Oil giant Shell is scrapping its unpopular rota which keeps North Sea workers offshore for three-week stretches.

It follows a review of its offshore operating model, which the company said was designed to "drive offshore productivity".

From spring 2019, around 800 workers and contractors will return to a two-week offshore, three-week onshore pattern.

The current system was introduced to cut costs in the wake of the downturn in the oil price, but it proved unpopular with workers.

Earlier this year, a report by Robert Gordon University for the Offshore Contractors' Association said many workers reported substantial fatigue.

Steve Phimister, vice-president for Upstream UK and Ireland, said: "We are changing the rota to respond directly to what our workforce has told us.

"For the last couple of years they've told us that they want change and we've engaged very broadly with the whole of our workforce, listened carefully and they've told us this is what they want and this is what they need and that's what we're going to do."

The changes will affect the Nelson, Gannet, Shearwater and Brent Charlie installations.

Jake Molloy, of the RMT union, welcomed the change.

He said: "We'd like to see the entire North Sea move to this. It's what the workforce has been calling for."

Members of the Unite union working for Total are currently engaged in an industrial dispute over plans to move to a three on, three off system.