Shell plc

Shell plc is a British publicly traded oil and gas company with its headquarters in London, England. It is listed primarily on the London Stock Exchange and also trades on exchanges in Amsterdam and New York. As Europe’s largest investor-owned oil firm, Shell is a major member of the Big Oil group, ranking third globally behind ExxonMobil and Chevron. Across all industries, it is among the world’s largest enterprises. Between 1988 and 2015, Shell ranked as the ninth-largest corporate emitter of greenhouse gases when counting both its own emissions and those from the fossil fuels it sells.

The company was created in April 1907 through the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company (Netherlands) and The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company (UK), with Royal Dutch holding 60 percent of the stock. British-Armenian oil magnate Calouste Gulbenkian arranged the deal. Shell quickly became the main rival to Standard Oil and by 1920 was the world’s top oil producer. It entered the chemicals sector in 1929. From the mid-1940s to the mid-1970s, Shell was one of the “Seven Sisters” that dominated global petroleum. In 1964, it helped launch the first commercial sea transport of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Shell bought the mining company Billiton in 1970, sold it in 1994, and that business now forms part of BHP. In recent decades, gas has grown more central to Shell’s operations, and it acquired BG Group in 2016.

Shell is vertically integrated, active across exploration, production, refining, transport, distribution, marketing, petrochemicals, power generation, and trading. It operates in more than 99 countries, produces about 3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent daily, and runs roughly 44,000 service stations worldwide. As of the end of 2019, Shell reported total proved reserves of oil equivalent. Its U.S. subsidiary, Shell USA, is one of its largest divisions. Shell also holds 44 percent of Raízen, a publicly traded joint venture with Cosan that ranks as Brazil’s third-largest energy company. Besides the Shell brand, the company owns Jiffy Lube, Pennzoil, and Quaker State.

Shell is a member of the FTSE 100 Index. On 24 July 2026, its market capitalisation was £186 billion, making it the third-largest company on the London Stock Exchange and 69th globally. Revenue in 2024 was $284 billion, a notable drop from $451 billion in 2013.

The company’s origins trace back to two rival firms. Royal Dutch Petroleum was founded in 1890 to develop an oilfield in Pangkalan Brandan, North Sumatra, led by August Kessler, Hugo Loudon, and Henri Deterding. The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company was established in 1897 by Marcus Samuel (later 1st Viscount Bearsted) and his brother Samuel Samuel. Their father’s antique business in Houndsditch, London, had expanded in 1833 to import and sell seashells, giving the company its name. The 1907 merger kept both firms legally separate but operated them as a single partnership, with Royal Dutch holding 60 percent and Shell 40 percent. National sensitivities prevented a full merger or takeover. The Dutch holding company, based in The Hague, managed production and manufacturing; the British Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company, based in London, handled transport and storage. In 1912, Shell bought the Rothschilds’ Russian oil assets via a stock deal, giving it a production portfolio that was 53 percent from the East Indies, 29 percent from Russia, and 17 percent from Romania.

During World War I, Shell was the main fuel supplier to the British Expeditionary Force, the sole supplier of aviation fuel, and provided 80 percent of the British Army’s TNT. It also volunteered all its shipping to the British Admiralty. The German invasion of Romania in 1916 destroyed 17 percent of Shell’s worldwide production. In 1919, Shell took over the Mexican Eagle Petroleum Company, and in 1921 formed Shell-Mex Limited to market Shell and Eagle brands in the UK. At the 1922 Genoa Conference, Shell negotiated for a monopoly over Soviet oilfields in Baku and Grosny, but talks collapsed after a draft treaty leaked. Shell Chemicals was founded in 1929. By the end of the 1920s, Shell was the world’s leading oil producer.