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Shell at a glance
As one of the world’s leading energy companies Shell plays a key role in helping to meet the world’s growing energy demand in economically, environmentally and socially responsible ways. In South Africa, Shell South Africa (Pty) Ltd, employs over 1500 people and is involved in the Retail and Commercial Fuels, Lubricants and Oils, Chemicals and Manufacturing Sectors.
Shell has been active in South Africa since 1902. Our main business activities in South Africa include Retail and Commercial Fuels, Lubricants and Oils, Chemicals, Manufacturing and Upstream Exploration. Our head offices in South Africa are based in Johannesburg.
Our values
Our core values of honesty, integrity and respect for people form the basis of the Shell General Business Principles.
Shell in South Africa
Shell came to South Africa in 1902. Shell South Africa's main focus at the time was on paraffin and kerosene, which brought both light and heat to communities across Southern Africa.
Throughout its long association with South Africa, Shell has played an important role in the country, not only as a premier oil company, but also as a committed corporate citizen and change agent.
Our business activities in South Africa
Today, Shell South Africa is mainly involved in the Retail and Commercial Fuels, Lubricants and Oils, Chemicals, Manufacturing and Upstream Exploration.
We have a nationwide Retail network of strategically located service stations, offering our customers a variety of fuels products, as well as friendly service and convenience shopping.
Our Commercial Fuels and Lubricants division sells diesel, lubricants, illuminating paraffin, bitumen and heavy furnace fuels directly to end users in the transport, construction, manufacturing, mining, marine, agriculture and general consumer markets.
In the Manufacturing area, the Sapref refinery, jointly owned by Shell and BP, is one of the largest refineries in Africa.
In Upstream Exploration, Shell South Africa Upstream B.V. holds an exploration right in the Orange Basin Deep Water area, off the country’s west coast and has applications for shale gas exploration rights in the Karoo, in central South Africa.
Other Shell interests in South Africa include Aviation, Chemicals and LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas).
Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies. Our headquarters are in The Hague, the Netherlands, and our Chief Executive Officer is Peter Voser. The parent company of the Shell group is Royal Dutch Shell plc, which is incorporated in England and Wales.
Our strategy to generate profitable growth remains to drive forward with our investment programme, to deliver sustainable growth and provide competitive returns to shareholders, while helping to meet global energy demand in a responsible way.
In Upstream we focus on exploring for new oil and gas reserves and developing major projects where our technology and know-how adds value to the resource holders.
In Downstream our emphasis remains on sustained cash generation from our existing assets and selective investments in growth markets.
Read more about our strategy and major projects on our corporate website (in English) - (opens in a new window)
Shell By Numbers (figures for 2011)
+ 90 countries where we operate
~90,000 number of employees
48% of our production is natural gas
18.8 million tonnes of LNG sold during the year
3.2 million barrels of gas and oil we produce every day
43,000 Shell service stations worldwide
30+ refineries and chemical plants we run
Businesses
- Upstream explores for and extracts oil and natural gas across.
- Downstream refines, supplies, trades and ships crude worldwide, manufactures and markets a range of products, and produces petrochemicals for industrial customers.
- Projects & Technology manages delivery of Shell’s major projects and drives the research and innovation to create technology solutions.
2010 Financial performance
- Revenue: $368.1 billion
- Income: $20.5 billion
- Capital investment: $30.7 billion
- Investment in research and development: $1 billion
Visit our Investor Centre to view our latest quarterly results (in English) - (opens in a new window)
Fast facts for sustainable development
- $2.3 billion spent on developing alternative energies, carbon capture and storage, and on CO2 R&D over the past five years.
- Almost $12 billion spent on goods and services in 2011 from companies in countries with lower incomes.
- ~$125 million spent on voluntary social investments in 2011.