Shell plc

For other uses, see Shell.

Shell plc
Formerly
  • Forthdeal Limited (2002–2004)
  • Royal Dutch Shell plc (2004–2022)[1][2]
Company typePublic
ISINGB00BP6MXD84
Industry
Predecessors
  • Royal Dutch Petroleum Company (1890)
  • The Shell Transport and Trading Company (1897)
FoundedApril 1907; 117 years ago (1907-04) (as Royal Dutch Shell)
20 July 2005; 19 years ago (2005-07-20) in Shell Centre, London (current entity)
Founders
HeadquartersShell Centre
London, England, UK
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Products
Brands
RevenueDecrease US$316.6 billion (2023)[3]
Decrease US$37.3 billion (2023)[3]
Decrease US$19.6 billion (2023)[3]
Total assetsDecrease US$406.3 billion (2023)[3]
Total equityDecrease US$188.4 billion (2023)[3]
Number of employees
90,000 (2023)[4]
Divisions
Subsidiaries
List
Websiteshell.com
Footnotes / references
  • a formerly known as "the Royal Dutch Company for the Exploitation of Petroleum Wells in the Dutch East Indies"

Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England.[5] Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New York Stock Exchange. A core component of Big Oil, Shell is the second largest investor-owned oil and gas company in the world by revenue (after ExxonMobil), and among the world's largest companies out of any industry.[6] Measured by both its own emissions, and the emissions of all the fossil fuels it sells, Shell was the ninth-largest corporate producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the period 1988–2015.

Shell was formed in April 1907 through the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company of the Netherlands and The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company of the United Kingdom. The combined company rapidly became the leading competitor of the American Standard Oil and by 1920 Shell was the largest producer of oil in the world.[7] Shell first entered the chemicals industry in 1929. Shell was one of the "Seven Sisters" which dominated the global petroleum industry from the mid-1940s to the mid-1970s. In 1964, Shell was a partner in the world's first commercial sea transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG).[8] In 1970, Shell acquired the mining company Billiton, which it subsequently sold in 1994 and now forms part of BHP. In recent decades gas has become an increasingly important part of Shell's business[9] and Shell acquired BG Group in 2016.[9]

Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration, production, refining, transport, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation, and trading. Shell has operations in over 99 countries,[10] produces around 3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and has around 44,000 service stations worldwide.[11][12] As of 31 December 2019, Shell had total proved reserves of 11.1 billion barrels (1.76×109 m3) of oil equivalent.[13] Shell USA, its principal subsidiary in the United States, is one of its largest businesses.[14] Shell holds 44%[15] of Raízen, a publicly-listed joint venture with Cosan, which is the third-largest Brazil-based energy company.[16] In addition to the main Shell brand, the company also owns the Jiffy Lube, Pennzoil and Quaker State brands.

Shell is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index and had a market capitalisation of US$199 billion on 15 September 2022, the largest of any company listed on the LSE and the 44th-largest of any company in the world.[17] By 2021 revenues, Shell is the second-largest investor-owned oil company in the world (after ExxonMobil), the largest company headquartered in the United Kingdom, the second-largest company headquartered in Europe (after Volkswagen), and the 15th largest company in the world.[18] Until its unification in 2005 as Royal Dutch Shell plc, the firm operated as a dual-listed company, whereby the British and Dutch companies maintained their legal existence and separate listings but operated as a single-unit partnership. From 2005 to 2022, the company had its headquarters in The Hague, its registered office in London and had two types of shares (A and B). In January 2022, the firm merged the A and B shares, moved its headquarters to London, and changed its legal name to Shell plc.[5][19]

  1. ^ "Shell PLC overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". Companies House. 5 February 2002. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
  2. ^ "Modern Slavery Act Statement 2022" (PDF). Shell. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e "4th Quarter 2023 and Full Year Unaudited Results" (PDF). Shell. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  4. ^ "Shell cuts low-carbon jobs, scales back hydrogen in overhaul by CEO". Shell. 25 October 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Shell begins trading under simpler, single-line share structure". Reuters. 31 January 2022. Archived from the original on 7 February 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  6. ^ "Global 500". Fortune. Archived from the original on 24 July 2018. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  7. ^ Garavini, Giuliano (2019). The Rise and Fall of OPEC in the Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press. p. 14. ISBN 9780198832836. Archived from the original on 17 March 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2021.
  8. ^ Peebles, Malcolm (1980). Evolution of the Gas Industry. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 194. ISBN 9781349051557. Archived from the original on 16 August 2021.
  9. ^ a b Fox, Justin (8 April 2015). "Stop Calling Shell an Oil Company". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 30 October 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  10. ^ "Tax Contribution Report" (PDF). Shell. 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 December 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  11. ^ "Shell at a glance". Royal Dutch Shell plc. Archived from the original on 29 August 2010. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
  12. ^ "8 Apr 2015 – Recommended Cash and Share Offer Announcement" (PDF). Royal Dutch Shell plc. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 October 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  13. ^ "Shell Annual Report and Accounts 2019Annual Report and Accounts 2019" (PDF). Royal Dutch Shell. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  14. ^ "Exploration & Production in the United States". Royal Dutch Shell plc. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
  15. ^ "Shareholding Structure". Raízen RI. Archived from the original on 17 December 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sugarcane Ethanol was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ "Largest Companies by Market Cap". companiesmarketcap.com. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  18. ^ "Global 500". Fortune. Archived from the original on 10 August 2022. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  19. ^ "SHELL PLC overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". Companies House. Archived from the original on 6 February 2022. Retrieved 6 February 2022.