About Shell Chemicals

The products that Shell chemicals companies make and supply - petrochemical building blocks and polyolefins - ultimately touch everybody's lives. The end products of the petrochemicals industry are all around us - in thermal and electrical insulation, medical equipment and sterile supplies, computers, lighter and more efficient vehicles, paints and biodegradable detergents, to name but a few. Petrochemicals have transformed countless aspects of the modern world and our lives would be very different without them.

Portfolio of businesses
The Shell Chemicals portfolio is focused on six product businesses and two international joint ventures. It is integrated and aligned with our core strengths in operating large-scale plants that produce high volume products. The portfolio is also designed to take advantage of synergies with the refining activities of the Shell Group, allowing us to integrate our refining and chemical processing facilities on shared sites. With this focus, we believe that we can deliver our vision of being the best in the petrochemicals industry.

Shell's chemicals business employs more than 900 people, in 38 countries, who work in partnership with more than 7,000 people across Manufacturing, Technology and Downstream functions.

Key manufacturing locations
Shell chemicals companies source product from manufacturing facilities around the world. Some of these facilities are operated by Shell chemicals companies, some by other businesses within the Shell Group and others by joint ventures in which Shell holds varying levels of investment.

Currently, Shell chemicals companies' main manufacturing locations for petrochemical building blocks are:

Moerdijk/Pernis, The Netherlands
Stanlow, UK

Deer Park, USA
Geismar, USA
Mobile, USA
Norco, USA
Scotford, Canada

Jurong Island/Pulau Bukom, Singapore

Sustainable development
To augment the Shell General Business Principles, Shell companies have adopted a more specific set of sustainable development principles: 

• Respect people
• Benefit communities
• Protect the environment
• Manage resources
• Generate profits
• Add value to customers
• Build stakeholder relationships
  

Shell Chemicals have four Strategic Priorities which contribute to these principles and also to our overall goals:

• Reducing our footprint. we need to continue to make improvements in operating efficiencies in order to reduce emissions, wastes and resources
• Sustaining value chains. we need to find ways to improve the net contribution to SD of the 'value chains' in which we are involved
• Building social capital. we must engage effectively with external stakeholders, such as local communities, and support the needs of all employees
• Creating our future. we must continue to innovate and deliver solutions that respond to society's evolving needs
  

Five year SD goals
Shell Chemicals have set a series of performance goals, with the aim of driving a continual improvement in SD performance over the five year period to 2007. The targets are:

• Energy efficiency: by 2007, improve overall energy efficiency by 7.5%, relative to 2002.
• Environmental impact: by 2007, reduce critical air emissions per unit of production by an average of 25% relative to 2002 and spills by 50%, relative to the previous five year average.
• Health of products: by 2004 ensure that a basic set of hazard data is compiled for all Shell Chemicals high production volume chemicals, as an interim step to completing initial risk assessments by 2007.
• Social performance: over the 2002 to 2007 period, achieve more favourable results in local community surveys for all major manufacturing sites.
• Business process alignment: by 2007, increase the alignment of business processes with SD by 40%, relative to 2002.
  

Health, safety and the environment

Setting and achieving high standards for health, safety and the protection of the environment (HSE) is essential to the performance of Shell chemicals companies and a key element of our commitment to sustainable development.

We aim to be recognised as being among the HSE leaders in the chemicals sector and a concerted programme of activity has been developed.

HSE Management Systems have been in place globally in Shell Chemicals since the end of 1999. These systems have been set up in such a way that they are certifiable by external groups and independent audits of all Shell chemicals companies are undertaken at regular intervals.

Shell chemicals companies are committed to Responsible Care® (the chemical industry's voluntary commitment to continuous improvement in HSE performance and to openness about its activities and achievements). In countries where Shell chemicals companies operate, and where Responsible Care programmes are in place, our companies are members. In countries where programmes are not in place, Shell Chemicals encourages and supports their development.

Product Stewardship is also a key component in our overall commitment to setting and achieving high standards of HSE. Our Product Stewardship systems are designed to ensure that all HSE aspects of a product are responsibly and ethically managed at every stage of the product's life cycle.

Technology resources
Leadership in technology is fundamentally important in enabling Shell chemicals companies to reach their goal of being best in the petrochemicals sector. It can, for example, enable them to become leading manufacturers in terms of performance and cost. Technology developments related to processes and catalysts can also create options for using alternative - and often less expensive - feedstocks.

The Shell Chemicals technology activities that support business needs are largely coordinated at two technology centres: Westhollow, Texas, USA and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Application research and technical service in polyurethanes is also carried out in Singapore, and specialised services are also provided by laboratories linked to various manufacturing sites around the world.

eBusiness
eBusiness is simplifying the way we do business through improvements in business processes and technology. By streamlining the way we work with our people, customers and suppliers, and by taking advantage of new technologies, we are improving efficiency and effectiveness.

Some of our key activities are:

• Customer Lounge: our secure internet website that provides customers with a range of self-service features from placing orders, accessing transactions and account information, to HSE data and participating in collaborative problem solving with Shell experts.
• ElemicaTM: an independent company used by Shell Chemicals to automate transactions
• eProcurement:  online bidding and transactional eProcurement using cc-hubwooTM (an independent third party marketplace) for buying and selling petrochemical and energy industry supplies.
  

The Shell Group
Shell businesses exist to meet the energy needs of society in ways that are economically, socially and environmentally viable. All of our businesses are united by common goals: to make the most of our existing business, to gain new business, and to break new ground.

Shell is an energy company which explores for, produces and trades in a range of energy resources. We explore for and produce oil and gas and we create essential products from them, such as fuels and petrochemicals. We also have a broad portfolio of hydrogen, biofuels, wind and solar power interests. Shell provides consultancy and technical services as well as research and development expertise to the energy industry. We are active in more than 130 countries and territories and employ 108,000 people worldwide.

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