How the oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell was formed
The oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell occupies one of the leading positions in the sector. The business was founded in 1907 due to the merger of two corporations – Royal Dutch Petroleum from the Netherlands and Shell from Great Britain. At that time, the need for such a decision was dictated by the desire of business partners to remain competitive in the market and resist the oil giant Standard Oil from the United States. Initially, the companies operated as fully independent units, but in 2005 there was a complete merger into a single structure.
The history of the Royal Dutch began in 1890 when the Netherlands received permission to produce oil in one of its colonies – Indonesia. As for Shell, it was founded in the 1830s as a trading company, and from the 1880s the business was almost entirely redirected to supply oil from the Caspian Sea to the Far East. The company was actively developing for some time, but gradually the business found itself in a difficult position. And by the time of the partnership of corporations, the share of British Shell was only 40% of the shares. Thanks to the acquisition of several fields, by 1914 the assets of the united business had increased 2.5 times.
Despite two wars, and the period of the Great Depression, the company managed to survive, and the 1950s and 60s became a period of prosperity for the group. Royal Dutch Shell increased the development of gas fields in the Netherlands, on the shelf near Australia. However, much had changed by the 1980s when the struggle for independence of the colonies began and a large number of fields were nationalized. The company had to look for new sites for development in order to maintain its position in the market.
In 2005 there was a merger into a common structure, as a result of which the Netherlands became the world’s largest investor at the time, and Britain received an impressive investment of over 164 billion dollars.
Now the company explores and produces oil and gas in more than 40 countries located in Europe, Africa, America, and Asia. In addition, the company owns the world’s largest network of gas stations – about 55 thousand facilities. 50 oil refineries of Dutch Shell are located in different regions, the largest of them with a capacity of 10 thousand tons of raw materials per day is located in the Netherlands. In addition to these assets, the structure of the company includes plants in the chemical industry and the production of solar panels and renewable energy facilities. The estimated market capitalization of Royal Dutch Shell is almost 176 billion pounds, and the company’s enterprises employ a total of 83 thousand people.
