Shell share: For almost 200 years – Shell’s history from antique dealer to energy company

Shell was founded in 1907 but its origins stretch back to London in 1833

After the merger with Royal Dutch, Shell expands rapidly and extensively around the world

Faced with climate change, Shell must now reduce its carbon emissions and develop a greener business

Shell is an international energy company that focuses on the exploration and production of oil and natural gas with more than 80,000 employees in more than 70 countries worldwide. The giant was founded in 1907, with the company’s history going back to 1833, according to its company website.

Interior: In 1833 Marcus Samuel decides to sell mussels

It was then that London antique dealer Marcus Samuel decided to follow the latest interior design trend and enter the shell business. The demand was so high that he had mussels imported from Asia and eventually set up an import-export business. On his death in 1870, his two sons became proprietors of the company and became interested in the oil business. Because there were no proven methods for intercontinental oil transport, the brothers themselves established the use of specially designed oil tankers and, with the Murex, sent the first oil tanker ever through the Suez Canal in 1892. Since significantly more oil could be transported in the tankers than on ships that transported barrels across the oceans, oil prices fell drastically, which boosted the brothers’ business. The company’s main competitor at the time was Standard Oil, which sold popular blue kerosene cans for personal use. Shell developed its own red cans, and by 1896 the kerosene trade was the brothers’ largest business.

Finally, in 1897, the company was renamed and from then on was officially called “Shell Transport and Trading”.

1907: Shell and Royal Dutch merged

In the same year, Shell built its first own refinery in what was then Dutch Borneo, and when oil was found in Texas in 1901, Shell acquired the transport and sales rights from Standard Oils. A year later, however, Shell found itself sitting idle with not much of the Texas oil left. Shell’s position in the oil market was also threatened by smaller competitor Royal Dutch, whose business was particularly thriving in Asia. When a telegram finally announced the merger of Shell and Royal Dutch on April 23, 1907, the “Royal Dutch Shell Group” was born.

From then on, Shell expanded into Europe, Asia, Russia, Venezuela, Mexico and the USA, providing fuel for a number of major events including the 1907 Peking to Paris Motor Rally and the Antarctic Expedition of Shackleton and Scott.

In 1947 the first oil platform was built in the Gulf of Mexico

Shell supplied the Allies during the World Wars. Between the wars, the entire petroleum industry expanded because the use of cars became more popular and the demand for fuel rose sharply. In 1919 the group founded Shell Chemicals in order to be able to participate in the development of better and more efficient oil refineries.

In the post-war period, Shell explored new sources of oil in Africa and South America and set up new refineries in Britain. In 1947, Shell opened its first oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, and just eight years later the group owned a total of 300 such platforms, followed by expansion into Oman. As the political situation in the Middle East worsened in the 1970s, oil prices rose rapidly and sharply, prompting Shell to seek oil suppliers in the US and to focus its expansion on other energy sources such as coal and nuclear power. In the early 1980s, Shell made several acquisitions and began developing its own drilling techniques and 3D seismic technology. In 1993, Shell opened the world’s first LNG production facility in Bintulu, Malaysia.

In addition to these entrepreneurial successes, Shell also experienced increasing criticism from outside on the subject of environmental protection – for example from Greenpeace with regard to the planned sinking of Shell’s Brent Spar oil platform in the Atlantic.

Climate process: Shell must reduce its CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2030

In 2005, the partnership between Shell and Royal Dutch was dissolved and the holding “Royal Dutch Shell plc.” formed, which took over the British oil and gas group BG Group in 2016. In the same year, Shell launched its own division for renewable energies, which did not stop criticism of Shell’s environmental damage. In 2021, the group lost a climate case at the District Court of The Hague and was obliged to reduce its CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2030.

In addition, the Anglo-Dutch group moved its headquarters from the Netherlands to Great Britain and renamed itself “Shell”.

Looking ahead, Shell CEO Ben van Beuten is quoted in the Q4 2021 quarterly report as saying: “We have a compelling customer-centric strategy. We have ambitious plans to increase shareholder value, decarbonize our products and deliver of energy for our customers [].”

Olga Rogler / Editor finanzen.net

Image sources: FotograFFF / Shutterstock.com, Semmick Photo / Shutterstock.com