Forbes Global 2000 ranked Shell to be the eighth largest company in the world

Royal Dutch Shell is a multinational oil company originating in Britain and the Netherlands. It is one of the six “Big Oils” and their world headquarters is located in The Hague, Netherlands. Its registered office is in London.

In 1907 The Royal Dutch Petroleum Company (Dutch) and The Shell Transport and Trading Company, Ltd. (British) merged their corporations to enable them to compete with the successful American oil company Standard Oil. The merger agreement split the new company with 60% of the company going under the Dutch and 40% under Britain. 

The name Shell originated from the founding Shell Transport Company. The father of the founder of the Shell Transport and Trading Company owned an import business that sold seashells to British collectors. In 1892 as Marcus Samuel was busy collecting some different seashells for his business in the Caspian Sea Marcus Samuel, Jr. discovered the potential for exporting lamp oil from this area of the world. He ran with his idea and sought to have the first oil tanker built for the purpose of transporting lamp oil. Fifteen years later his company had a fleet of oil tankers.

Shell operates five businesses under the main Shell banner. Those are Exploration and Production, Gas and Power, Refining and Marketing, Chemicals, and Trading/Shipping. Shell operates companies in over 140 countries.

Recently Shell has begun to move slowly into the alternative energy market. They now have a small renewable business that has dabbled in solar power, wind power, hydrogen, and forestry. The forestry business was discontinued in 2003. Shell is one of the biggest investors in the solar and wind renewable energy fields. Four years ago Shell was fourth worldwide for sales of solar products.

Shell has been the subject of examination and public scrutiny over the years - particularly by environmental and human rights groups, as well as several local communities. Shell has also been criticized because of several specific operations. Shell’s businesses in South Africa and Nigeria as they are related to protests of the Ogoni and the execution of journalist Ken Sara-Wawa in Nigeria are issues that have plagued Shell. Journalist Ken Saro-Wiwa spoke out against Shell voicing his opinion about Shell’s role in the destruction of his homeland. Over 20 million people are living in abject poverty in Nigeria while at the same time there is a huge amount of wealth being generated in this area. Nigeria is one of the leading Opec nations and Shell is the biggest oil producer in Nigeria.