The largest corporations in the world. Royal Dutch Shell, or the story of oil and shells Dutch company royal dutch

The history of this brand begins almost two centuries ago - in 1833 - with the name of the English merchant Marcus Samuel. That year in London, he decided to expand his antiques business by selling a new decorative item, seashells. After all, the word "shell" is translated from English as "shell".

From seafood to oil

The Shell store turned out to be a profitable business, so the merchant soon arranged for the delivery of sea shells from the Far East, for which coastal fleet ships were used. It was these ships that carried a variety of cargoes from the British colonies to London, including oil products. Samuel saw the great future of the oil business in time, and in 1870, after his death, the business passed to his sons. In 1878, they open their own company, the scope of which is rapidly expanding.

In 1890, the company began exporting Baku oil using tankers. Then Baku was part of the Russian Empire, and the first oil tanker was built there. This ship was seen by the owner of the company, and already in 1892 in England at the shipyard he was able to build an oil tanker for 5000 tons.

The design of this tanker had some features: Marcus Samuel Jr. developed a special system to protect oil from spontaneous combustion during the transportation of the product. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Shell supplied consumers with a highly demanded product at that time - Russian kerosene from the Far East.

Creation of a world-class corporation

At the beginning of the 20th century, a separate company, Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd., was founded, although it was still far from being a world-class oil corporation. It should be emphasized that in those days the Standard Oil Company, which belonged to Rockefeller and systematically crushed the market for oil and other types of fuel, was especially powerful. The Samuel brothers were constantly at risk of being forced out of the industry after any bad business decision.

In order to defend its right in the world market, Shell had to team up with the Dutch company Royal Dutch of the same profile. This expanded the oil and petroleum product trading network in 1902. In the new company, only 40% of the shares belonged to Shell Transport, and this situation in the united concern is still preserved.

Already 10 years later, Royal Dutch Shell enters the US domestic market. The stake was placed on the production of fuel oil and gasoline, which turned out to be successful due to the dynamic development of the automotive business. During the First World War, the company's growth slowed down, but after it ended, it resumed at an active pace. By the end of the 1930s, Shell had a 10 percent share of world oil production.

During the Second World War, business development stopped, the company did everything to survive this difficult period and stay afloat. After the war, Shell took an active part in the restoration of destroyed enterprises and began to intensively gain processing capacity. Shell's oil products production has increased worldwide.

Since the second half of the 20th century, the demand for oil in the world has been constantly growing, the cost has been consistently high, and Shell only grew rich in such conditions. The first time the demand for oil fell was due to the events in Iran in the late 1970s. On the other hand, global gas consumption has grown, so Shell began to develop this direction. The company's management was sensitive to changes in the market and deftly adjusted to them.

Brand insignia

For more than a hundred years, the Shell logo has been a red and yellow scallop shell. It, as the company's marketers assure, symbolizes the quality of products and services, professionalism and corporate values ​​of the concern.

The color of the logo was not chosen by chance. In 1915, when the company first built service stations, it was necessary to stand out from the competition, and then it was decided to use bright colors.

Today, Royal Dutch Shell produces oil in 80 countries around the world, it owns a large number of wells and three dozen oil refineries around the world. This company employs 90,000 people, and net profit is tens of billions of dollars a year.

As a result of its activities worldwide, Shell has been at the center of a number of controversies concerning business practices, involvement in local politics, ethical and environmental issues.

History

The Royal Dutch Shell Group of companies was created Royal Dutch Petroleum Company was a Dutch company founded in 1890 by Jean Baptiste August Kessler, along with Henri Deterding and Hugo Loudon, when a Royal charter was granted by king William III of the Netherlands to a small oil exploration company known as "Royal Dutch Company for the Exploration of Petroleum Wells in the Dutch Indies" (Koninklijke Nederlandsche Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Petroleumbronnen in Nederlandsch-Indië). The company established its first pipeline and refinery in Sumatra in 1892, processing petroleum from local oil fields. In 1896, under the leadership of Hendrik W.A. Deterding (1866–1939), it began to build oil tankers and storage facilities and create a sales organization. By 1907, the company had developed a tanker fleet which allowed it to compete with “Shell” Transport and Trading Company, Ltd..

“Shell” Transport and Trading Company, Limited

Marcus Samuel (1853 – 1927), the founder of “Shell” Transport and Trading Company, Ltd, was born into a Jewish family in Whitechapel, London . His father, also Marcus Samuel, ran a successful import-export business, M. Samuel & Co., trading with the Far East, which Marcus carried on with his brother, Samuel Samuel. Marcus Samuel realized the potential of the oil trade during a trip to the Black Sea in 1890, and ordered the construction of eight dedicated tankers, the first purpose-built tanker ships ever made. The first to be launched was the Murex(Latin for a type of snail shell), under the command of Captain John R. Coundon. These were the first such ships to satisfy the Suez Canal company of their safety, allowing Samuel to ship his product to Bangkok and Singapore . In 1896 he set up oil wells and refineries in Borneo, and in 1897 he established a separate company in the United Kingdom, the “Shell” Transport and Trading Company, Limited (the quotation marks were part of the legal name). By 1907 the company had a fleet and had contracted for petroleum supplies in Sumatra, Texas, Russia, Romania and other locations.

Royal Dutch Shell

In 1903, Royal Dutch and “Shell” companies decided to integrate their distribution and sales operations for petroleum produced in the East Indies and marketed in the Far East. In February, 1907, largely driven by the need to compete globally with the then-predominant American oil company, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company (legal name in Dutch, N.V. Koninklijke Nederlandsche Petroleum Maatschappij) and the "Shell" Transport and Trading Company Ltd of the United Kingdom merged their operations. The new Royal Dutch/Shell Group was headed by two parent companies, with Deterding as general managing director. The terms of the merger gave 60 percentof the new Group to the Dutch arm and 40% to the British.

The United Kingdom created Marcus Samuel, the founder of “Shell” Transport and Trading Company, 1st Baron Bearsted of Maidstone in the County of Kent in the 1921 Birthday Honors, in recognition of Shell's contribution to the British cause during World War I .

In 1919, Shell took control of the Mexican Eagle Petroleum Company and in 1921 formed Shell-Mex Limited which marketed products under the "Shell" and "Eagle" brands in the United Kingdom . The Group's principal American subsidiary, Shell Oil Company, was founded in 1922. In 1931, partly in response to the difficult economic conditions of the times, Shell-Mex merged its UK marketing operations with those of British Petroleum to create Shell-Mex and BP Ltd., a company that traded until the brands separated in 1975. In 1949, Royal Dutch Shell shortened its corporate title to Shell.

After World War II, new advances in technology and manufacturing increased the worldwide demand for petroleum products, and Shell expanded rapidly. The first supertankers were built to facilitate the transfer of crude oil, and refineries were built close to the markets they would be serving.

In November 2004, following a period of turmoil caused by the revelation that Shell had been overstating its oil reserves, it was announced that the Shell Group would move to a single capital structure, creating a new parent company to be named Royal Dutch Shell PLC, with its principal listing on the London Stock Exchange and the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and its headquarters and tax residency in The Hague in the Netherlands. The unification was completed on July 20, 2005. Shares were issued at a 60/40 advantage for the shareholders of Royal Dutch in line with the original ownership of the Shell Group.

Under the old capital structure, Shell's ADRs (American Depositary Receipts) were traded on the New York Stock Exchange as RD (Royal Dutch) and SC (Shell).

“Shell” name and brand

"Shell" is named after the founder"s first business, selling painted seashells

Shell logo from petrol station

The brand name “Shell” is linked to the origins of the “Shell” Transport and Trading Company. In 1833, the founder's father, also Marcus Samuel, founded an import business to sell seashells to London collectors. While he was collecting seashell specimens in the Caspian Sea area in 1890, the younger Samuel realized there was potential to export lamp oil from the region.In 1897 he formed “Shell” Transport and Trading Company, named after his first business, which sold painted seashells.

The Shell brand is one of the most familiar commercial symbols in the world. Known as the "pecten" after the sea shell pecten maximus(the giant scallop), on which its design is based, the current version of the logo was designed by Raymond Loewy and introduced in 1971. The yellow and red colors used are thought to relate to the colors of the flag of Spain because Shell built early service stations in the state of California which had strong connections with Spain.

Businesses

The upstream provides two thirds of Shell's revenues

A Shell oil refinery in Martinez, California

Royal Dutch / Shell is the world's second-largest private sector oil company by revenue, Europe's largest energy group and a major player in the petrochemical industry. It was one of the original Seven Sisters, a cartel of oil companies including Standard Oil of New Jersey (ExxonMobil), Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC, later BP), Standard Oil Co. of New York (Mobil, now part of ExxonMobil), Standard Oil of California (Chevron , Gulf Oil, and Texaco. The Seven Sisters dominated mid-20th century oil production, refining, and distribution until OPEC strength improved during the 1960s.

core businesses

Shell has five core businesses: Exploration and Production (the "upstream"), Gas and Power, Refining and Marketing, Chemicals (the refining and marketing of petroleum products and chemicals makes up the "downstream"), and Trading/Shipping, and operates in more than 140 countries.

Shell's primary business is the management of a vertically integrated oil company. The development of technical and commercial expertise in all the stages of this vertical integration from the initial search for oil (exploration) through its harvesting (production), transportation, refining and finally trading and marketing, established the core competencies on which the Group was founded. Shell applied this expertise to the production and distribution of natural gas, which now contributes a significant proportion of the company's profits.

The vertically integrated business model gave significant economies of scale and provided Shell with the opportunity to establish barriers to entry both geographically and on a global level in certain sectors of the market. Recently vertical integration has become less viable, and though the structure remains, there is much less interdependence among the businesses. Shell's oil and gas business is increasingly an assembly of independent and globally managed business segments, each of which must be profitable in its own right.

The “downstream,” which also includes the third Chemicals business, generates a of Shell's profits worldwide and is most recognized by its global networks of more than 40,000 petrol stations and its 47 oil refineries.

diversification

Shell has occasionally sought to diversify its core oil, gas and chemicals businesses. These diversifications have included a short-lived and costly joint venture into nuclear power with Gulf Oil in the USA; coal (Shell Coal was for a time a significant player in mining and marketing); metals (Shell acquired the Dutch metals-mining company Billiton in 1970) and electricity generation (a joint venture with Bechtel called Intergen). None of these ventures were seen as successful and all have now been divested.

In December 2016, Shell won the auction for the 700 MW Borssele III & IV offshore wind farms at a price of 5.45 c/kWh, beating 6 other consortia.

In November 2017, Shell's CEO Ben van Beurden announced Shell's plan to cut half of its carbon emissions by 2050, and 20 percent by 2035. In this regard, Shell promised to spend $2 billion annually on renewable energy sources. Shell began to develop its wind energy segment in 2001, the company now operates six wind farms in the United States and is part of a plan to build two offshore wind farms in the Netherlands.

corporate governance

Traditionally, Shell was a heavily decentralized business worldwide (especially in the “downstream”) with companies operating in over 100 countries with a considerable degree of independence. The “upstream” tended to be more centralized, receiving detailed technical and financial direction from the central offices in The Hague. In a small number of major oil and gas production centers such as the United Kingdom (Shell Expro, a Joint Venture with Exxon), Nigeria , Brunei , and Oman Shell established large "Exploration and Production" companies.

The “downstream” business, which in some countries also included oil refining, typically comprised of a retail petrol station network, lubricants manufacture and marketing, industrial fuel and lubricants sales and a host of other product/market sectors such as LPG, and bitumen . The custom and practice in Shell was that these businesses were essentially local in character and that they were best managed by local "operating companies" – often with middle and senior management reinforced by expatriates. In the 1990s the independence of operating companies around the world was gradually reduced and today directly-managed "global businesses" have been created in all sectors. London is the headquarters of the “downstream” and other businesses and services, while the “upstream” business is primarily managed from the offices in The Hague.

United States and Canada

One Shell Plaza, Shell Oil Company's headquarters in Houston.

Shell service station near Lost Hills, California

Australia

Coles Express service station in Clontarf, Queensland

In 2003, retailer Coles Myer (Coles now part of Wesfarmers, Myer now part of Newbridge Capital) purchased the rights to the retail business from the existing Shell Australia multi-site franchisees for an amount less than A$100 million. This was in response to a popular discount fuel offer launched some years earlier by rival Woolworths Limited.

Under the agreement, Coles Express sets fuel and shop prices and runs the business, provides convenience and grocery merchandise through its supply chain and distribution network, and directly employs the service station staff. Shell is the exclusive supplier of fuel and lubricant products, leases the service station property to Coles, and maintains the presence of the "pecten" and other Shell branding on the price board and other signage.

Controversies involving Royal Dutch Shell

Through its history Royal Dutch Shell has been involved in a number of controversies associated threats to the environment and to public health and safety, its business practices and political corruption in some of the countries where it was doing business. In recent decades Shell has acknowledged some of these problems and has promised to take steps to repair damage done both to the affected parties and to its own reputation. These steps included tightening internal controls among its different subsidiaries, an ostensible commitment to corporate social responsibility, an extensive global advertising campaign and other initiatives in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Early controversies

Henri Wilhelm August Deterding KBE (Hon), who served as chairman of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and of the combined Royal Dutch/Shell oil company for 36 years, was forced to resign from the company's board in 1937 after he proposed selling a year's oil reserves on credit to the German Nazi party.

In 1965, the British Crown Colony of Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence from Britain leading to the imposition of sanctions by the United Nations , including strict controls on oil and petroleum product sales to the rebel colony. A letter to the British government written by Shell's Chairman Sir Frank McFadzean in June, 1976, stated that "… no company in which we have an interest is supplying to Rhodesia." In 1978 the "Bingham Report" on sanctions revealed that Shell's local offices in southern Africa , along with those of , had been breaking the UN oil embargo from the moment it was imposed. there the oil had been shepherded by Shell Mozambique, a British-incorporated firm, into the hands of South African brokers, who sent it north by rail through Mozambique to Rhodesia. employees were doing.

Shell to Sea

$153.6 million damages for U.S. patent infringement

On October 3, 2005 a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a patent infringement verdict against Shell Oil Company in a case brought by Union Carbide concerning a patent on chemical processes used to make ethylene oxide . The federal court also told a lower court to consider increasing the $153.6 million damages already awarded in the case.

Jiffy Lube International

In December 2004, an Oklahoma state judge approved a class action settlement between Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary Jiffy Lube International and millions of U.S. plaintiffs. The agreement settled nine similar lawsuits from California to New Jersey over environmental surcharges imposed on Jiffy Lube’s oil change customers. For five years, Jiffy Lube added a $1.25 “environmental surcharge” to the price of each oil-change, making it appear that it was a tax imposed by the government. Under the terms of the settlement, Jiffy Lube provided more than seven million customers with a coupon good for $5 off an oil change.

$2 million fine by UN for violation of embargo against Iraq

The Vietnam War

Between 1972 and 1975, the last three years of the Vietnam War , Shell Vietnam(the local operating company of the Shell Group) controlled half of Vietnam's oil supply. According to a book by the President of Shell Vietnam during that period, Louis Wesseling, Fueling the war: revealing an oil company's role in Vietnam Shell failed properly to control the oil shipments which flowed through indirect channels to the Vietcong. Shell knowingly employed as a manager matters a notorious former senior police official with a “fearsome and well-deserved reputation” who “had already shown his inclination to settle security by military action with little compunction about killing, innocents along with suspects.” Wesseling later served as CEO of Shell companies in South America and the Middle East and collaborated on drafting the "Shell Group Business Principles."

Nigeria

Shell operates a joint venture with the government in Nigeria under the name Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). The Nigerian government and Nigerian political have profited from the exploitation of oil in their country but have done very little to benefit the people in the areas where oil leaders are produced, who continue to live in dire poverty. Shell, along with other oil companies, is often criticized for failing to use its considerable interest in Nigeria to bring about change in the Niger delta. Militant rebels in the Niger Delta pose a direct threat to oil production facilities there and frequently stage acts of sabotage.

In the early 1990s, Ken Saro-Wiwa, president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), led a non-violent campaign against environmental damage associated with the operations of multinational oil companies, including Shell and British Petroleum, in the Ogoni homelands of the Niger delta. In January 1993, MOSOP organized peaceful marches of around 300,000 Ogoni people (more than half of the Ogoni population) through four Ogoni population centers, drawing international attention to his people's plight. That same year, Shell ceased operations in the Ogoni region. In 1995, when Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others were executed on trumped-up charges of treason, much of the world-wide condemnation of the act was aimed at Shell, which was implicated by its association with the Nigerian government's activities.

Exchange Control speculation in Japan

Shell (Showa Shell) petrol station in Japan

Showa Shell Sekiyu KK is a joint venture downstream oil company in Japan in which Shell had a 50 percent share (now 40 percent) and which markets under the Shell brand. In 1993 the company sustained losses of 165 billion yen (approx US$1.4 billion) from unauthorized forward currency transactions. The company's treasury department, expecting the U.S. dollar to rise against the yen, bought forward dollars on futures markets at around 145 yen. Unfortunately, the dollar decreased to 120 yen in 1993, causing huge foreign exchange losses for the firm. The scandal prompted Shell to review its internal controls, especially in joint ventures, and resulted in the resignations of four top executives of Showa Shell Sekiyu and the firing of a fifth. currency speculation was “a gross contravention of established rules and practices which was deliberately concealed.”

Brent Spar

Shell was challenged by Greenpeace over plans for the undersea disposal of the Brent Spar, an old oil transport and hub station located in the North Sea , in the North Atlantic. Shell eventually agreed to disassemble it onshore in Norway , although it has always been maintained that its original plan to sink the platform was safer and better for the environment. Upon its disposal, the Greenpeace estimates of toxic content were found to have been inaccurate.

Restatement of oil and gas reserves

On January 9, 2004, the Royal Dutch Shell Group drew fire from shareholders, financial analysts, the media and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when it announced the recategorization of its hydrocarbon reserves, admitting that a significant share of reserves previously booked as “proven” did not fulfill the requirements for proof under U.S. regulatory provisions. . According to tight US Securities and Exchange Commission rules, a reserve must have "reasonable certainty" of being technically and commercially produced to be considered "proved." The SEC Cease and Desist Order of August 24, 2004, states that Shell over-reported its proved reserves in 2002 by 4.47 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe), or approximately 23 percent, and further concludes that Shell also overstated the standardized measure of future cash flows in this report by approximately $6.6 billion. Shell corrected these overstatements for the years 1997 to 2002 in an amended filing on July 2, 2004. It was also revealed that bonus payments to top managers in previous years had been linked to the proven reserves base (this practice has since been discontinued.)

The controversy over the exaggeration of Shell’s oil and gas reserves resulted in the resignation of the then chairman Sir Philip Watts, and the departure of the head of the Exploration and Production business Walter van der Vijver and the CFO Judy Boynton. A number of shareholders, including a group of Dutch pension funds allegedly holding about 5 percent of Shell's shares , German and Luxembourg institutional shareholders, the Pennsylvania State Employees" Retirement System and the Pennsylvania Public School Employees" Retirement System, initiated law suits alleging that, based on the false reports, the value of Shell's shares had been overstated in the stock markets.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) of the United Kingdom imposed a penalty of UK£17 million on The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company p.l.c. and The Royal Dutch Petroleum Company NV for “market abuse.” On the same date, the SEC] imposed a fine of US$70 million on Shell making a combined penalty of approximately US$150 million

Sakhalin

Sakhalin-II is an oil and gas project led by Shell on Sakhalin Island in Russia that involves the piping of oil and gas to an oil terminal and the construction of Russia's first liquefied natural gas LNG plant. The project has been controversial from the In the summer of 2005, Sakhalin Energy, the project operator, doubled its estimated capital costs to around $20 billion and LNG production was delayed until 2008. from Russian environmental regulators threatened to halt the scheme and land the shareholders with penalties. of November, 2005, the Chief Executive of WWF said that the project would have a "negative impact on Sakhalin"s people and environment." These concerns impeded the efforts of Shell and the other consortium partners to seek financing for the project from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The originally negotiated contract was a “production sharing agreement” which gave the Russian state revenues only after Shell and the other partner companies had recouped their costs and made a substantial return on their investments. Thus Shell was substantially protected from cost overruns. In late 2006, Shell and its partners in Sakhalin Energy reached an agreement with Gazprom for the Kremlin controlled company to become the majority shareholder in the venture. Russian President Putin attended the signing ceremony in Moscow and announced that environmental issues had been resolved

Other controversies

Shell is a major partner in a controversial oil exploration project in the Beaufort Sea off the northern coast of Alaska , 9.5 miles from the protected Arctic National Wildlife Refuge . The project has been opposed by environmentalists who have questioned the content of environmental impact assessments, alleged inadequate consultation and launched legal challenges against the scheme.

corporate responsibility and reputation

Much of Shell's public relations initiatives emphasizes its embryonic renewable energy business, though it remains a relatively small business compared to the core hydrocarbon extraction, processing and marketing operations. Shell is researching ways to reduce the impact of oil processing and usage on the environment , such as capturing CO2 from power plants and refineries and storing it safely underground in old oil and gas reservoirs.

Shell "s response to the problems of Brent Spar and Nigeria was to launch an internal review of processes and an external communications campaign to persuade stakeholders of their commitment to corporate social responsibility. In response to criticism of its track record on environmental matters Shell published an Shell Chairman Philip Watts gave a 2003 speech in Houston calling for skeptics to get off the fence and take action to stop global warming "before it is too late." founding member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, which Watts led as Chairman in 2002-2003.

social investment

Shell operates a number of programs both on the local and corporate levels to make positive contributions to society. It provides education and training to prepare local students for careers in the oil and energy industries, and seeks to hire employees and purchase materials locally in order to contribute to community development. Shell cooperates with NGOs (non-government organizations) to create development programs in the countries where it operates, and invests in small businesses concerned with sustainable energy, climate change, and biodiversity. For more than 21 years, Shell's LiveWIRE initiative has encouraged young people to start and develop their own businesses in the UK and 25 other countries.

The Shell Centenary Scholarship Fund (TSCSF), established in 1997, offers approximately 90 scholarships annually to allow postgraduate students from developing countries to study in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands , and gain skills that will make a long-term contribution to the further development of their countries.

The Shell Foundation, established by the Shell Group in 2000, as an independent charity registered in the U.K., seeks to use business know-how, management tools and assets to tackle global problems.

notes

1. no. 32346 The London Gazette(Second Supplement), June 4, 1921. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
2. Shell shareholders approve merger BBC News, June 28, 2005. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
3. The history behind the Shell logo Retrieved April 8, 2019.
4. From seashells to the world of oil shell.com. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
5. marcel knobil, Business Superbrands(The Brand Council, 2000, ISBN 0952815346), 93.
6. Shell and Cosan join forces for $12 billion ethanol venture EcoSeed September 3, 2010. Retrieved April 8, 2019

The history of Shell began in 1833, when the English merchant Marcus Samuel opened a small shop selling various trinkets decorated with sea shells (“shell” in English means shell), and other exotic oriental products. Shell was the name of Samuel's father's shop in London. The enterprise proved profitable, and Samuel arranged for the delivery of seafood from the Far East by means of his small coastal fleet. Vessels traveling from the metropolis to the colonies carried various cargoes on board, including oil products. Samuel, being a talented businessman, saw a great future for the oil business during its practical birth. After his death, in 1870, the business passed to his sons, who in 1878 founded their own company.

The circle of activities of the Samuel brothers expanded rapidly, especially after Marcus Samuel Jr. visited Batumi in 1890, from where Baku oil was exported. He decided to take on the transportation of oil around the world using tankers.

The world's first oil tanker was built in Russia at the shipyards of Baku and was called "Zoroaster", in memory of the Zoroastrians - fire worshipers, the ancestors of modern Armenians. Samuel was shocked when he saw the Russian tanker.

Turning out to be a very resourceful entrepreneur, already in 1892 he managed to build his first tanker called the Murex with a displacement of 5 thousand tons at one of the English shipyards. In memory of this event, the lead tanker of Shell's oil fleet is now called Murex. The key point is that the design of the tanker invented by Marcus Samuel eliminated the risk of spontaneous combustion of oil products. In addition, Murex was registered by the Lloyd agency and met the stringent requirements of maritime transportation through the Suez Canal (which no oil company could achieve before), through which it was planned to transport oil and other oil products. Murex made its first flight in August 1892 with a cargo of 4,000 tons of Russian kerosene on the Batumi-Singapore-Bangkok route.

That is why the first "brand" product supplied by Shell to Far Eastern consumers in early 1893 was Russian kerosene.

The transportation of oil also gave rise to new problems - in the ports of the Far East, the enterprising Samuel built large tanks for storing oil. As well as factories for the production of packaging, which the locals used for a variety of purposes, including for the manufacture of roofing roofs.

By the end of the 90s of the last century, Samuel's oil business had grown so much that in 1897 he founded a separate company called Shell Transport and Trading Company Ltd.. But the creation of a world-class oil corporation was still far away. Marcus Samuel still had a powerful enemy in the American monopoly Standard Oil. The need to resist the expansion of the Americans became the basis for the rapprochement between Shell and Royal Dutch, which Samuel once considered nothing more than a dangerous competitor. Royal Dutch Petroleum was established in 1890 under the auspices of the King of the Netherlands, which developed a rich field on the island of Sumatra and competed fiercely with Shell for sales markets. However, history was pleased to dispose of the fate of these two companies in its own way.

In 1902, after long negotiations, Shell and Royal Dutch created the Asiatic Petroleum concern, whose goal was to expand the trade in oil and petroleum products, including Russian production, in the Far East region. In 1907, the capital and interests of Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport & Trading Co. were finally merged, forming the foundation of the corporation known today throughout the world as Royal Dutch/Shell. In 1900, Henry Detering (1866-1939), who was later called the "oil Napoleon", became the managing director of this company, and then the chairman of the board of directors. Detering was a supporter of cooperation with Shell. On his initiative, in 1907, the capitals of Royal Dutch and Shell merged, and the new company with two head offices in London and The Hague.

In the combined concern, 60% of the shares belonged to Royal Dutch, and 40% to Shell. This ratio has been maintained to this day.

Soon a period of growth began. The scope of the concern was constantly expanding, new deposits of crude oil were being developed, scattered almost all over the globe. Powerful oil refineries were controlled by the center in order to more quickly demand for petroleum products. Oil production rights were acquired in Romania (1906), Russia (1910), Egypt (1913), Venezuela (1913) and some other countries and regions.

In 1912, the concern entered the US domestic market, starting the development of oil fields and the construction of oil pipelines. In connection with the development of maritime and road transport, Shell made a bet on the production of fuel oil and gasoline and was not mistaken, which brought him enormous profits.

In 1919, British pilots John Alcock and Arthur Witten-Brown made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in a Shell fueled aircraft.

First World War somewhat slowed down the company's rapid ascent to the oil Olympus, but after its completion - again active growth. Companies are being created in the USA, the Middle East, Malaysia, East and South Africa. In the early 1930s, Shell took its first steps in the production of petroleum-based chemicals. By the end of the 1930s, Shell was producing about 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day, which was more than 10% of world production.

The years of World War II were not easy for Shell. The Netherlands was occupied by Germany. Romania and the Far East also remained beyond the reach of the company.

Shell actively cooperated with the governments of the allied countries, ensuring uninterrupted supplies of aviation and motor gasoline, as well as fuel oil to all fronts of military operations.

The chemical company Shell Chemical Corporation has established the production of butadiene for the manufacture of artificial rubber. During the war, all the company's tankers came under the command of the government, as a result, in 1945 Shell lost 87 of its ships.

At the end of the war, the concern set about restoring the destroyed enterprises and quickly coped with this task. The expansion of processing capacities has begun. Production of petroleum products increased in almost all regions, especially in Venezuela.

Early 50s world economy felt the need for new sources of crude oil. The concern launched prospecting and exploration work in Algeria, Trinidad, on the shelf of British Borneo. Deposits were discovered in the Netherlands (Skhunebek), Canada, Columbia, Iraq. The increased volumes of oil production naturally led to the construction of new oil refineries, the largest of which were built in the Dutch port of Pernis, the French city of Rouen, Cardona (Venezuela), Geelong (Australia), and Bombay.

In the 1950s, Shell accounted for one-seventh of the world's production of petroleum products, the output of which was constantly increasing. More powerful and capacious tankers (up to 200 thousand tons) were required to transport oil. Soon such tankers became the main unit of the Shell fleet.

In 1959, a joint venture between Shell and Exxon discovered one of the richest natural gas fields in the Dutch town of Groningen. Gas production has become another direction of Shell's diversified concern. By the beginning of the 1970s, half of the gas consumed in Western Europe was produced in Groningen.

In the mid-1960s, Shell explored several unique gas fields in the North Sea at once, which required the development of a new technology for the sea transportation of liquefied gas. In the 1970s, Shell and its partners managed to supply five million tons of liquefied gas from Brunei to Japan. Shell has pioneered large-scale liquefaction projects and long-haul shipping. In the 80s, the export of liquefied natural gas produced by the concern increased significantly - in 1989, the largest project was carried out to develop the northwestern shelf of Australia and supply liquefied natural gas to Japan.

In addition to gas, in 1971 the giant Brent oil field was explored in the North Sea under extremely difficult natural conditions. Exploration and development of the North Sea later became Shell's largest business. Severe weather conditions dictated the need to use high-tech equipment for oil production. Following Brent, Shell discovered the Kormorant (1972), Dunlin (1973), Turn (1975) and Eider (1976) fields. The development of Brent is considered one of the most technologically complex and expensive projects in the history of mankind.

In the mid-1970s, demand for oil fell. The events in Iran in 1978-79 and the related restrictions on oil supplies - all this brought to life the need to search for alternative energy sources. Gas consumption in Europe more than doubled in the late 1970s. 50% of this amount was provided by Shell and its partners.

Expanding the range of its activities, the concern strengthened its position in the coal and metallurgical industries. In 1981, a large magnesium plant was put into operation in Wendam (Netherlands).

In the 1980s, Shell's efforts focused on differentiating products and services, on improving production efficiency through the automation of distribution and marketing networks.

In the same period of time, Shell switched to the production of unleaded gasoline, a more environmentally friendly fuel.

By the end of the decade, the company was processing about three million barrels of crude oil at its refineries. A quarter of the group's total income came from chemical production. And yet, the 1980s were unprecedented in the development of offshore fields in the North Sea. In its Norwegian sector, the second largest Troll gas field in Europe was discovered. Two of the largest oil and gas fields, Bullwinkle and Auger, were explored in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1989, daily oil production from the Bullwinkle platform, installed at a depth of 412 m, reached 8 thousand barrels. In 1994, another giant Auger platform was built on pre-tensioned supports, the height of which was 872 m. This is the highest stationary structure in the world on the seabed.

To save competitive advantage Shell is ready to make fundamental changes in its structure. These changes include the July 2005 merger of the parent companies Royal Dutch and Shell Transport into a single company, Royal Dutch Shell plc.

Shell logo

For more than a century, the word "shell" or "Shell", the scallop shell emblem and the distinctive colors of red and yellow have been used to identify the brand and promote the company's reputation. These symbols signify the quality of products and services, represent professionalism and values ​​all over the world.

At the origins

The name of the company was "Shell" (eng. shell), and each tanker Samuela, carrying kerosene to the east, bore the name of a different shell. The scallop may have been taken from the family crest of a business partner, Mr. Graham, who imported Samuel's kerosene to India and became a director of The Shell Transport and Trading Company. After moving to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the Graham family adopted the Saint James shell as their coat of arms. Over time, the shape of the shell has gradually changed in line with graphic design trends. Designer Raymond Loewy created and introduced the existing emblem in 1971.

Why red and yellow?

In 1915, the Shell company in California built service stations for the first time, and they needed to stand out from the competition. They used bright colors that would not offend the people of California: due to the state's close Spanish ties, red and yellow were chosen.

Today's colors appeared years later, in 1995 Shell's vibrant, consumer-friendly red and yellow colors were introduced for the company's new retail products. The scallop remains one of the most famous brand symbols in the 21st century.

Royal Dutch Shell(Royal Dutch Shell) - British-Dutch oil and gas company. The headquarters is located in The Hague (Netherlands). Shell conducts geological exploration and production of oil and gas in more than 40 countries around the world. Shell owns the world's largest filling station network, with over 55,000 stations. Shell also owns or partially owns more than 50 oil refineries. In particular, the company owns one of Europe's largest Pernis refineries in the Netherlands with a capacity of 10,000 tons per day, the Stanlow plant in the UK with a capacity of 12 million tons per year, and three refineries in France with a total capacity of 40,790 tons per day. In addition, Shell owns a significant number of chemical enterprises, as well as the production of solar panels and other alternative energy sources. Shell gas station in Rosario (Argentina)

Exxon Mobil Corp.- American company, one of the largest private oil companies in the world, one of the largest corporations in the world in terms of market capitalization of $336.5 billion.

BP(British Petroleum) is a British oil and gas company, the second largest publicly traded oil and gas company in the world.

Chevron Corporation(Chevron Corporation) (NYSE: CVX) is the second integrated US energy company after ExxonMobil, one of the largest corporations in the world.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.(Walmart) (NYSE: WMT) is an American public corporation, the world's largest retail chain. The company operates on the principle of chains of large department stores with discounts. In 2010, it became the largest public corporation in the world by revenue, according to Forbes Global 2000. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and has been publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 1972. Wal-Mart is the world's largest private employer and the largest grocery retail chain in the United States. In 2009, the company sold 51% of the $258 billion US food market. It also owns and operates the Sam Club of North American retail warehouses. Walmart operates in Mexico in the United Kingdom as Asda ("Asda Wal-Mart" in some industries), in Japan as seiyu, and in India at Best Price. In Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Puerto Rico. Wal-Mart investments outside of North America. The corporation operates in the UK, South America and China, while it was forced to withdraw from Germany and South Korea when the ventures were unsuccessful. Wal-Mart is the world's largest retail chain, which includes (as of mid-February 2007) 6,782 stores in 14 countries. Among them are both hypermarkets and supermarkets selling food and industrial goods. Wal-Mart's strategy includes such components as the maximum assortment and minimum, tending to wholesale, prices. Wal-Mart's main competitors in the US retail market are the Home Depot, Kroger, Sears Holdings Corporation, Costco, and Target chains.

Wal-Mart is a leader in the implementation of technologies related to the use of RFID tags in commerce.

The total number of the company's personnel is 2 million people (2009).

Toyota Motor Corporation(Japanese: トヨタ自動車株式会社, Toyota Jidosha KK, TYO: 7203, LSE: TYT, NYSE: TM, commonly known simply as Toyota and abbreviated as TMC, is a major Japanese automaker headquartered in Aichi, Japan. In 2010, Toyota Motor Corporation employed 317,734 people worldwide.TMC is the world's largest automaker in terms of vehicle sales and production.The company was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda in 1937 as a spin-off from his father's Toyota Industries company to build cars.Three years earlier, in 1934, at the same time department of Toyota Industries, created its first product, the engine, and in 1936 the company creates its first passenger car, Toyota AA.Toyota Motor Corporation companies of the Toyota Group (including the Scion brand), Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino Motors, along with several "non-automotive" companies.TMC is part of the Toyota Group, one of the largest conglomerates in the world.

Toyota Motor Corporation headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi and Tokyo. Its Tokyo head office is located at 1-4-18 Koraku, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112-8701, Japan. Nagoya Office at 4-7-1 Meieki, Nakamura-ku, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture. In addition to manufacturing automobiles, Toyota provides financial services through its Toyota Financial Services division and designs and builds robots. International activity

Toyota has factories in most parts of the world, manufacturing or assembling vehicles for local markets. Toyota has manufacturing and assembly plants in Japan, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Canada, Indonesia, Poland, South Africa, Turkey, Columbia, UK, USA, France, Brazil, Portugal, and more recently, Argentina, Czech Republic, Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, Egypt, China, Vietnam, Venezuela, Philippines and Russia.

General Electric, GE (NYSE: GE) is an American multinational corporation one of the world's largest conglomerates. The company operates in five segments: energy, technology, financial capital, consumer and industrial engineering. Including locomotives, power plants (nuclear reactors), gas turbines, aircraft engines, medical equipment, it also manufactures lighting equipment, plastics and sealants. In 2010, Forbes ranked General Electric as the second largest company in the world after JPMorgan Chase, total sales, profits, assets and market value of several multinational companies. The company has 287,000 employees worldwide.

Turnover: $278.188 billion

Net income: $12.518 billion

Capitalization: $323.7 billion

Number of employees: 102,000 thousand people

Royal Dutch Shell(Royal Dutch Shell) is a British-Dutch oil and gas company, the second largest company in the world, according to Forbes 2000 (2009). The company takes 1st place in the Fortune Global 500 (2009). The headquarters is located in The Hague (Netherlands).

Story

The group was created in 1907 by the merger of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company Ltd in anticipation of the expansion of the American Standard Oil Trust.

Structure and leadership

Until mid-2005, the structure of the company had an original "dual" character: Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company Ltd were the so-called "parent companies" (they did not production activities and were not part of the group). "Parent companies" owned shares in the holding companies of the concern - the Dutch "Shell Petroleum N. V." and the English Shell Petroleum Company Limited, with Royal Dutch Petroleum Company owning 60%, and Shell Transport and Trading Company owning 40% of the shares of the holding companies. In turn, the holding companies owned all the shares in the service companies, as well as - directly or indirectly - the entire share of Shell in the manufacturing companies.

In the summer of 2005, the shareholders of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company Ltd approved the merger of the parent companies into one company headquartered in the Netherlands. The deal turned the Netherlands into the world's largest investor in 2005 and the UK into the world's top investment recipient (which tripled to $164.5 billion).

Activity

Shell conducts geological exploration and production of oil and gas in more than 40 countries around the world. Shell owns the world's largest filling station network, with over 55,000 stations.

Shell also owns or partially owns more than 50 oil refineries. In particular, the company owns one of Europe's largest Pernis refineries in the Netherlands with a capacity of 10,000 tons per day, the Stanlow plant in the UK with a capacity of 12 million tons per year, and three refineries in France with a total capacity of 40,790 tons per day.

In addition, Shell owns a significant number of chemical enterprises, as well as the production of solar panels and other alternative energy sources. Shell gas station in Rosario (Argentina)

Oil and gas production in 2006 was 3.47 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, which consisted of daily production of 1.948 million barrels of oil and 8.368 million cubic feet of gas. The daily production of 1.948 million barrels of oil roughly corresponds to the annual production of 97 million tons of oil.

In 2006, Shell processed 3.57 million barrels of oil per day (177.7 million tons per year).

The total number of the company's personnel is about 112 thousand people. The company's revenue in 2006 amounted to $318.8 billion (in 2005 - $306.7 billion), net profit - $26.3 billion (in 2005 - the same amount).