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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 Honours, 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. “Shell” Transport and Trading Company became a public limited company in 1981.

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 gained strength 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 Chemicals business, generates a third 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 consisted 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. The Bingham report revealed that shipments to Rhodesia had arrived at the old petroleum port of Lourenco Marques (now Maputo), and from 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. Senior executives of Shell were criticized in the report for failing to monitor what local 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, Fuelling 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 a notorious former senior police official with a “fearsome and well-deserved reputation” who “had already shown his inclination to settle security matters 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 leaders have profited from the exploitation of oil in their country but have done very little to benefit the people in the areas where oil is 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. John Jennings, then a Shell Group Managing Director, was quoted as saying that the unauthorized 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 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 start because of its cost, environmental consequences and impact on the community. 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. Allegations of environmental violations and criticism from Russian environmental regulators threatened to halt the scheme and land the shareholders with penalties. Western conservation groups were concerned because the project involved putting equipment close to the breeding grounds of endangered grey whales , and dumping of waste near sensitive salmon fishing areas. At the end 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 initiative 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 unequivocal commitment to sustainable development , supported by transparent and honest reports. 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." Shell is also a 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