Shell Oil Company

Shell Oil Company is the American branch of the British- and Dutch-owned multinational oil company, Royal Dutch Shell. Shell Oil Company explores for, produces and markets oil and natural gas in America. Shell also focuses on the exploration of off-shore oil drilling, especially in the Gulf of Mexico.

Royal Dutch Shell is the world's second largest multinational oil company.

Shell Oil Overview

Shell leads the market with about 25,000 gas stations in the United States.

In 1997, Shell entered into two refining and marketing ventures jointly with Texaco, one known as Equilon in the west and midwest and the other known as Motiva in the east and gulf coast. Shell purchased Texaco's shares when the latter company merged with Chevron in 2001.c

Shell Oil Timeline

1886: Marcus Samuel, Jr. became interested in oil exportation on a trip to Baku, Russia. This led to Samuel setting up bulk oil storage in several ports with his brother, Sam.

1892: The Samuel brothers led the first bulk tanker through the Suez Canal for the first time, bulk transport cutting the cost of oil enormously. They operated under the name the Tank Syndicate.

1897: The Samuel brothers renamed their company the Shell Transport and Trading

Company.

1903: Shell formed a sales organization called the Asiatic Petroleum Company with Royal Dutch Petroleum in an effort to protect themselves from Standard Oil.

1904: The scallop shell replaced Shell's first marketing logo, a mussel shell.

1907: A full merger of Shell and Royal Dutch Petroleum came this year to create the Royal Dutch Shell Group, which expanded across the globe.c

1919: Alcock and Brown used Shell fuel to make the first trans-Atlantic flight.

1929: Shell Chemicals was founded in an effort to advance the refinement of chemicals from crude oil. This year marked Shell as the world's leading oil company, producing 11 percent of the world's crude oil supply as well.c

1949: Shell drilled its first subsea oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

1955: Shell had 300 some-odd offshore oil wells, mostly in the Gulf region.

1958: Commercial production of Nigerian oil begins for Shell.c

1960s: Shell internationalized the company and hired a diverse staff globally.

1970: Shell purchased Billiton, a metals mining company.

1973: Shell moved into nuclear energy though a partnership with Gulf Oil to manufacture gas-cooled reactors as well as fuel. They sold their interests in the partnership the following year.c

1985: Shell bought out the remaining 30 percent of shareholding to consolidate its

operations in America.