We are a global group of energy and petrochemical companies with an average of 86,000 employees in more than 70 countries. We use advanced technologies and take an innovative approach to help build a sustainable energy future.
Royal Dutch Shell was formed in 1907, although our history can be traced back to the first half of the 19th century.
Our headquarters are in The Hague, the Netherlands, and our Chief Executive Officer is Ben van Beurden. The parent company of the Shell group is Royal Dutch Shell plc, which is incorporated in England and Wales.
Our strategy is to strengthen our position as a leading energy company by providing oil and gas and low-carbon energy as the world’s energy system changes. Safety and social responsibility are fundamental to our business approach.
Our purposeShell’s purpose is to power progress together with more and cleaner energy solutions. We believe that rising standards of living for a growing global population are likely to continue to drive demand for energy, including oil and gas, for years to come. At the same time, technology changes and the need to tackle climate change means there is a transition underway to a lower-carbon, multisource energy system.
Against this backdrop, we have the following strategic ambitions:
Our ability to achieve our strategic ambitions depends on how we respond to competitive forces. We continuously assess the external environment – the markets as well as the underlying economic, political, social and environmental drivers that shape them – to evaluate changes in competitive forces and business models.
We continuously seek to improve our operating performance, with an emphasis on health, safety, security, environment and asset performance.
Our peopleOur people are essential to the successful delivery of the Shell strategy and to sustaining business performance over the long term. Performing competitively in the evolving energy landscape requires competent and empowered people working safely together.
A diverse workforce and an inclusive work environment are vital to our success, leading to greater innovation and better energy solutions. We believe that diverse teams led by inclusive leaders deliver better safety and business performance.
Shell at a glance in 201770+ countries we operate in
86,000 employees on average
66 million tonnes of LNG sold during the year
21 refineries we have interests in
3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent we produce per day
Financial performance in 2017Revenue: $305.2 billion
Income: $13.4 billion
Capital investment: $24 billion
Investment in research and development: $922 million
Fast facts for sustainable development in 2017$111 million was spent on voluntary social investment worldwide. Of this:
We estimate that around $107 million of our total social investment spend in 2017 was in countries that are part of the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index 2016. These countries have a gross domestic product of less than $15,000 a year per person. Significant support is also provided in the form of voluntary work by Shell employees and donations of equipment.
Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies.
Our operations are divided into our businesses: Upstream, Integrated Gas and New Energies, Downstream. Our Projects & Technology organisation manages the delivery of Shell’s major projects and drives our research and innovation. Our Upstream organisation manages the exploration for and extraction of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. It also markets and transports oil and gas, and operates the infrastructure necessary to deliver them to market. Our Integrated Gas organisation manages our liquefied natural gas (LNG) activities and the production of gas-to-liquids (GTL) fuels and other products. It includes natural gas exploration and extraction, when contractually linked to the production and transportation of LNG, and the operation of the upstream and midstream infrastructure necessary to deliver gas to market. It markets and trades natural gas, LNG, crude oil, electricity, carbon-emission rights and sells LNG as a fuel for heavy-duty vehicles and marine vessels.
In New Energies, we are investing in opportunities where we believe sufficient commercial value is available. We focus on new fuels for transport, such as advanced biofuels, hydrogen and charging for electric vehicles; and power, including from low-carbon sources such as wind and solar as well as natural gas.
Our Downstream organisation manages different Oil Products and Chemicals activities as part of an integrated value chain, including trading activities, that turns crude oil and other feedstocks into a range of products which are moved and marketed around the world for domestic, industrial and transport use. The products we sell include gasoline, diesel, heating oil, aviation fuel, marine fuel, biofuel, lubricants, bitumen and sulphur. In addition, we produce and sell petrochemicals worldwide. Our Downstream organisation also manages oil sands activities.
Our Projects & Technology organisation manages the delivery of our major projects and drives research and innovation to develop new technology solutions. It provides technical services and technology capability for our Integrated Gas, Upstream and Downstream activities. It is also responsible for providing functional leadership across Shell in the areas of safety and environment, contracting and procurement, wells activities and greenhouse gas management.
Our strategyOur strategy is to strengthen our position as a leading energy company by providing oil and gas and low-carbon energy as the world’s energy system changes. Safety and social responsibility are fundamental to our business approach. The execution of our strategy is founded on becoming a more customer-centric and simpler company, focused on delivering higher, more predictable, returns and growing free cash flow. By investing in competitive projects, driving down costs and selling non-core businesses, Shell continues to seek to reshape its portfolio into a more resilient and focused company.
Our key strengths include the development and application of technology, the financial and project management skills that allow us to deliver large field development projects, and the management of integrated value chains.
Shell’s core values are honesty, integrity and respect for people. The Shell General Business Principles, Code of Conduct, and Code of Ethics help everyone at Shell act in line with these values and comply with relevant laws and regulations. We also strive to maintain a diverse and inclusive culture within our company.
Shell General Business PrinciplesAs a global energy company operating in a challenging world, we set high standards of performance and ethical behaviours. We are judged by how we act and how we live up to our core values of honesty, integrity and respect for people. Our Business Principles are based on these. They promote trust, openness, teamwork and professionalism, as well as pride in what we do and how we conduct business.
We were one of the first global companies to state and share our beliefs when we published our General Business Principles in 1976. As part of these principles, we commit to contribute to sustainable development, balancing short and long-term interests and integrating economic, environmental and social considerations into our decision-making.
All Shell employees and contractors, and those at joint ventures we operate, are expected to understand and continually behave in line with our Business Principles. We expect suppliers, and joint ventures that we do not operate, to apply equivalent principles.
Take a look inside some of our major projects to see how human ingenuity pushes technical boundaries to safely and efficiently deliver energy, helping to meet rising global demand.
Appomattox, a deep-water oil and gas project, is Shell’s largest floating platform in the Gulf of Mexico. In May 2018 the Appomattox platform left Ingleside, Texas, USA for its final location 130 kilometres (80 miles) off the coast of Louisiana. Project development
Building on Shell’s history of leadership in the Gulf of Mexico, the Appomattox development is a cornerstone of our global deep-water strategy that will drive safe, competitive, and profitable production growth for years to come. The Appomattox development will initially produce from the Appomattox and Vicksburg fields, with first oil by the end of the decade and average peak production estimated to reach approximately 175,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d).
Shell first discovered the Appomattox field in 2010 and Vicksburg in 2013 and the final investment decision (FID) to advance the Appomattox project was made in July 2015. Since taking FID, Shell has achieved more than 25% cost savings, in addition to approximately 20% cost reduction on the project prior to FID. These cost reductions have been the result of efficient execution, significant well cost reductions and lower market costs. The Appomattox hull, weighing 40,000 metric tons, is the largest floating production system that Shell has ever built. Constructed in Geoje, South Korea, it made its way to Ingleside, Texas, USA, in 2017 where the host platform and subsea infrastructure were added.
In May 2018 the Appomattox platform left Ingleside to travel to its final location in the Gulf of Mexico. Production is expected to start in 2019. Strategic, competitive and innovative
With Shell’s industry-leading position in the deep water, our business is on a growth trajectory, including expanding production opportunities in this area of our Gulf of Mexico heartland. Currently we are the only operator in the Gulf of Mexico with commercial deep-water discoveries in the Norphlet formation, including Appomattox, Vicksburg, Rydberg and Ft. Sumter. Shell continues to focus on the break even price of the project to pursue cost reductions, making this development an attractive and competitive investment in Shell’s global portfolio. As a leading, competitive and innovative project in deep water, Appomattox will continue this legacy to safely, responsibly and efficiently unlock energy resources from this industry-first, frontier development.
LNG Canada is a major liquified natural gas (LNG) project currently under construction on the west coast of Canada. It is expected to deliver its first LNG shipment before the middle of the next decade.
Project overviewIn October 2018, Shell along with four joint venture participants, took a final investment decision to develop LNG Canada, a major liquified natural gas processing facility located in Kitimat, British Columbia.
LNG Canada will initially consist of two trains, or processing units, that will receive and process natural gas, converting it into LNG ready for shipping. These two units will have the capacity to produce 14 million tonnes of LNG per year. There is the possibility of expanding the facility to include up to four processing units in the future.
Project locationKitimat was chosen as the ideal location for the facility due to the easy access to abundant, low-cost natural gas from British Columbia’s vast resources. The location also benefits from a relatively short shipping distance to north Asia, one of the fastest growing gas markets in the world. The shipping route is approximately 50% shorter than from the US Gulf of Mexico and avoids the Panama Canal.
The project has strong support from the local community, including indigenous First Nations, as well as from the local government. The project partners are also working to ensure that sustainable development is considered in every aspect of the project. For example, LNG Canada has been designed to achieve the lowest carbon intensity of any LNG project in operation today, aided by the partial use of hydropower.
The Bonga North West development began producing vital energy resources in August 2014. The field is located around 120km off the coast of Nigeria in the Gulf of Guinea at a depth of more than 1,000 metres (3,300 feet). All six wells (four oil producing and two water injection wells) are now completed and on stream, contributing more than 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent at peak annual production. This is transported by a new undersea pipeline to the upgraded Bonga floating production, storage and offloading facility.
See how we are using advanced technology to deliver safe, economic deep-water projects to provide energy the country needs and skills and jobs for Nigerians.
Shell started production operations from its Cardamom project in September 2014. Cardamom is a subsea development project that produces oil and gas for the nearby Auger production hub. Project development
The Cardamom reservoir is located about 360 kilometres (220 miles) south-west of New Orleans, Louisiana. It sits beneath thick layers of salt in rock more than six kilometres (19,000 feet) below the sea floor. For a long time, it had remained undetected by conventional seismic surveys. In 2010 using advanced seismic technology, Shell geologists identified the hidden reservoirs. The company took the final investment decision to develop the Cardamom field in June 2011.
Cardamom is a subsea system connected to the Auger production hub which is in water more than 800 metres (2,600 feet) deep also south-west of New Orleans. It features five wells that are designed to safely produce up to 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) each day.
Shell’s Auger production hub pioneered deep water oil and gas production. Since first production at Auger in 1994, the production hub has been upgraded several times to process additional production from new discoveries. Cardamom is Auger’s seventh, and largest, subsea development.
Society and environmentFor decades, the US Gulf of Mexico has been a heartland of energy production. Thousands of Shell employees and contractors work each day to safely find, develop and produce the Gulf of Mexico’s vast oil and gas resources to help power our lives. Safety is crucial to this work. Across all of Shell’s operations, we strive to achieve what we call Goal Zero – no harm to people or the environment.
Shell has been a part of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast for more than 100 years. We are committed to helping shape a positive future for the region through our business activities, social investment programs and employee volunteer work. We partner with many non-profit organisations to support conservation, education in science, engineering, technology and maths (STEM) and economic development projects across the Gulf Coast. Our employees also spend thousands of hours volunteering each year to help rebuild damaged homes, protect and restore Louisiana’s coast, and inspire the state’s next generation of scientists, engineers and leaders.
For more than 100 years the word Shell, our pecten emblem and distinctive red and yellow colours have visualised the Shell brand and promoted our values and the quality of our products and services all over the world.
The word Shell first appeared in 1891, as the trademark for kerosene shipped to the Far East by Marcus Samuel and Company. This small London business dealt originally in antiques, curios and oriental seashells. These became so popular – the Victorians used them to decorate trinket boxes in particular – that soon they formed the basis of the company’s profitable import and export trade with the Far East.
The word was elevated to corporate status in 1897, when Samuel formed the Shell Transport and Trading Company. The first logo in 1901 was a mussel shell, but by 1904 a scallop shell or pecten emblem had been introduced to give a visual representation of the corporate and brand name.
When the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and Shell Transport and Trading merged in 1907, the latter’s brand name and symbol (Shell and the pecten) became the short-form name and emblem of the new Royal Dutch Shell Group. And so it has remained ever since.
The form of the Shell emblem has changed gradually over the years in line with trends in graphic design. The current emblem was introduced in 1971. Thirty years on it stands the test of time as one of the world’s most recognised symbols.