Royal Dutch Shell plc, commonly known as Shell, is an AngloDutch multinational oil and gas company incorporated in the United Kingdom and headquartered in the Netherlands. Created by the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum and UK-based Shell Transport & Trading, it is the largest company in the world, in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors".

Shell Oil Company is the United States-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, a multinational oil company, which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world.

Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It has minor renewable energy activities in the form of biofuels.

Facts and Figures:Products: Petroleum, natural gas, and other petrochemicalsRevenue: US$ 451.235 billion (2013)Operating income: US$ 26.870 billion (2013)Profit: US$ 16.371 billion (2013)Total Assets: US$ 357.512 billion (2013)Total Equity: US$ 180.047 billion (2013)Employees: 87,000 (2013)Exploration: Active in more than 70 countriesNet capital investment: $29.8 billionInvestment in research and development: $1.3 billionProduce 3.3 Million barrels of oil every dayOperate 44,000 shell service stations worldwide

Stages in companys operations

Downstream engine:

In our Downstream businesses, our emphasis remains on sustained cash generation from our existing assets and selective growth investments.

The implementation of our strategy will see us actively manage our assets around three themes in Downstream:

operational excellence and cost efficiency, to maximise the uptime and operating performance of our asset base, and to reduce costs and complexity; optimise profitability of our portfolio of refineries that best integrate with crude supplies, marketing outlets and local petrochemical plants; and selective growth in countries such as Brazil, China and India, which have high growth potential, while maintaining or increasing our margins in our core countries. This includes researching, developing and marketing biofuels.

Upstream:

Shells upstream engine focuses on cash generation from some of our mature basins. Focused exploration, license renewals and the application of Shells advanced technology all will contribute to extending the life of these assets in a safe and responsible manner. Through new field developments and commercial options, selective growth will occur in these assets to contribute to offsetting natural field decline.

Our positions in Europe, South East Asia and some of the Middle East are included in the upstream engine and should underpin the financial performance of the upstream business up to the end of the decade and beyond.

Integrated Gas:

Shell is the leading IOC for integrated gas, which is LNG and Gas to Liquids. Integrated gas earned over $9 billion in 2012, which is around 40% of our bottom line, and generated $ 12 billion of cash flow or over 20% of our total CFFO.

We have 22 mtpa of LNG capacity on stream today, with 7% growth in 2012. The next tranche of LNG growth for Shell is coming from Australia, with 7 mtpa under construction, which will lift our capacity by over 30% to 2017. We have worked to diversify Shells integrated gas optionality, so that we can go ahead with the most attractive projects for the next tranche of growth. We have more than 20 mtpa of new LNG options under studypotentially 70% uplift to capacity after 2017.

Deep water

Shell is one of the industrys pioneers in deep water oil and gas business with some 330 thousand barrels per day of production in 2012 with a strong growth outlook.We have 9 new fields under construction, in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and South East Asia. The key here is to standardise the development concepts, to control costs and speed up the development pace.Shell has expanded its deep water potential with new frontier exploration positions in several countries, where we intend to drill large prospects.

Resources plays

Fraccing technologies have opened up a very exciting new resources base for the industry and we want Shell to be a leading player here.We currently have resources plays positions in 13 countries in tight gas and shales (unconventionals). Our production today is predominantly in North America gas and liquids-rich plays, with exploration and appraisal underway around the world. We are building up our operating capabilities by working to reduce costs in the supply chain, for example the Sirius joint venture in China, where we are joint owners of drilling rigs with PetroChinas service company Greatwall Drilling Company. We have published global principles for fraccing operations, covering water use and community relations amongst others.

Future opportunities

This strategic theme covers countries and plays where Shell has access to very large resources positions typically in oil but where there are surface issues that can slow down the development pace, such as community and government relations, security of our staff and evolving local fiscal and environmental regulations.

In Canada oil sands, we are investing in debottlenecking opportunities and carbon capture and storage to improve the efficiency and environmental footprint of this asset. We are permitting for further larger expansions but there are no immediate plans for an final investment decision this is for the longer term.

We also have growth projects underway in Kazakhstan, Iraq and Nigeria all of which have significant resource positions but each has its unique challenges which require a measured investment pace.

Shell is a leader in an industry expansion into offshore arctic regions. In 2012 we drilled top holes off the north coast of Alaska, resuming activity there after a 10 year industry absence. This is a high potential exploration province; however any potential development is at least a decade away from fruition.

Major Refineries:

Europe: Czech Rep. Denmark Germany The Netherlands Norway

Asia-Pacific: Australia Japan Malaysia Pakistan Philippines Singapore Turkey

Americas: Argentina Canada-Alberta-Ontario USA-California-Louisiana-Texas -Washington

Other: Saudi Arabia South Africa

Involvement in the Chemical Industry:

Shell chemicals companies manufacture and deliver petrochemical building blocks to large industrial customers in all parts of the world. Countless products that we all use every day in our homes, our cars, at work or while we relax owe their beginnings to the raw materials that Shell chemicals companies provide.

Their products: -Alpha olefins/detergent alcohols Aromatics Ethylene oxide/glycols Lower olefins Phenol/Acetone and Nonene Propylene oxide and derivaties Solvents Styrene monomer

Future of Energy:

Energy is vital for producing food, fuelling transport, and offering communication channels across the world. As the global population rises, more people are moving out of poverty and gaining access to energy. All sources will be needed to meet growing needs in a sustainable way. Everyone has a part to play. At Shell we use advanced technologies and take an innovative approach to help deliver more, cleaner energy and find ways to use energy more efficiently.

More, cleaner, smarter energy

Shell plans to spend $100 billion from 2011-2014 to support new energy production. We are entering more challenging environments to unlock new resources and boosting production from existing fields. At the same time, we are using new technologies and an innovative approach to limit our impact on the environment and find effective ways to engage with communities near to our operations.

We are developing cleaner energy sources, such as natural gas, the cleanest burning fossil fuel. From the extraction of the fuel to the generation of electricity, natural gas power plants emit around half the CO2 of coal power plants. Natural gas complements wind and solar power, which need a highly flexible backup supply when the wind stops or the sun goes down.

For our customers we offer advanced fuels and lubricants to help boost fuel efficiency, as well as driving tips and programmes to help save fuel.

We believe the most practical, commercially viable way to reduce CO2 from transport fuels over the next 20 years will be lower-carbon biofuels. Already one of the largest suppliers of biofuels, we have moved into biofuel production. Through the Razen joint venture in Brazil, we are producing the lowest-carbon biofuels commercially available today in the form of ethanol from Brazilian sugar cane.

Out on the roads, our technology allows surfaces to be laid at lower temperatures, with lower CO2 emissions.

Sustainable development in Shell

We contribute to sustainable development by helping to meet the worlds growing energy needs in economically, environmentally and socially responsible ways.

Our contribution to sustainable development comes from the choices we make about which projects to invest in, from reducing the impact of our operations and from achieving the greatest benefits for local communities.

We develop products and services to help meet the need for clean, convenient and affordable energy for example by producing more cleaner-burning natural gas, and by producing low-carbon biofuel while helping to develop advanced biofuels for the future.

At our most complex projects, we employ specialists in environmental and social performance who work closely with business managers.

Our Business Principles have included our commitment to contribute to sustainable development since 1997.It requires us to balance short- and long-term interests, and to integrate economic, environmental and social considerations into business decision-making.Arctic drilling Shell announced its $4.5 billion Arctic drilling program in 2006 by using drilling rigs Kulluk and Noble Discoverer. However, due to the refurbishment of rigs and permit delays from the relevant authorities, the drilling started in 2012. The plans to drill in the Arctic have caused protests of the environmental groups, particularly Greenpeace. In 2010 Greenpeace activists painted "No Arctic Drilling" with spilled BP oil on the side of a ship in the Gulf that was en route to explore for Arctic oil for Shell. At the protest, Phil Radford of Greenpeace called for "President Obama ban all offshore oil drilling and call for an end to the use of oil in our cars by 2030." On 16 March 2012, 52 Greenpeace activists from five different countries boarded Fennica and Nordica, multipurpose icebreakers chartered to support Shell's drilling rigs near Alaska. In July 2012, Greenpeace activists shut down 53 Shell petrol stations in Edinburgh and London in a protest against the company's plans to drill for oil in the Arctic. Greenpeace's "Save the Arctic" campaign aims to prevent oil drilling and industrial fishing in the Arctic by declaring the uninhabited area around the North Pole a global sanctuary.[86] Concerns have increased after the grounding incident of the Kulluk at the end of 2012. The company admits the dangers of pack ice and notes that "no one has yet fully determined how to clean up an oil spill in pack ice or broken ice. Royal Dutch Shell states that it will "pause" its closely watched project to drill for oil off the Alaskan coast in 2013, and will instead prepare for future exploration.

Nigerian settlement In June 2009 Shell's parent company, Royal Dutch Shell, paid US$15.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought in U.S. District Court in New York. The suit alleged that Shell had conspired with the government of military dictator Sani Abacha to kill author Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni citizens involved in a nonviolent campaign against oil waste dumping in their homeland in the Niger Delta.More than 50 years of unsafe drilling and frequent oil spills and gas flarings in the region have had a disastrous effect on the environment and on human health. Nigerian troops used violence to suppress protests, while Shell resisted pressure to use its influence to improve the situation. Saro-Wiwa had been president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People when he and eight others were arrested, brought before a military tribunal, and sentenced to be hanged. After the executions in November 1995, Saro-Wiwa's body was "burned with acid and thrown in an unmarked grave." The incident focused widespread outrage on Royal Dutch Shell and the Nigerian government. In New York the Center for Constitutional Rights brought suit against the company on the grounds that surviving plaintiffs could not safely return to Nigeria to press their claims there. The US$15.5 million settlement paid for legal fees, compensation to Ogoni families, and "a trust to invest in social programs" in Nigeria.Shell did not admit wrongdoing, but claimed the settlement was made on "humanitarian" grounds. Ben Amunwa, director of the Remember Ken Saro-Wiwa organization, replied that Shell settled the case "because the evidence compiled by the plaintiffs, was damning enough to force an out of court settlement." In 2012[dated info] the US Supreme Court was scheduled to hear arguments in a similar case filed by Esther Kiobel, widow of an anti-Shell activist, to determine whether her case against Royal Dutch Shell may proceed through the US court system.