Who we are

Royal Dutch Shell was formed in 1907, although our history can be traced back to the first half of the 19th century.

Our headquarters are in The Hague, the Netherlands, and our Chief Executive Officer is Ben van Beurden. The parent company of the Shell group is Royal Dutch Shell plc, which is incorporated in England and Wales.

Our strategy is to strengthen our position as a leading energy company by providing oil and gas and low-carbon energy as the world's energy system changes. Safety and social responsibility are fundamental to our business approach.

Our purpose

Shell's purpose is to power progress together with more and cleaner energy solutions. We believe that rising standards of living for a growing global population are likely to continue to drive demand for energy, including oil and gas, for years to come. At the same time, technology changes and the need to tackle climate change means there is a transition underway to a lower-carbon, multisource energy system.

Against this backdrop, we have the following strategic ambitions:

• to provide a world-class investment case. This involves growing free cash flow and increasing shareholder returns, all built upon a strong financial framework and resilient portfolio;
• to thrive in the energy transition by responding to society’s desire for more and cleaner, convenient and competitive energy; and
• to sustain a strong societal licence to operate and make a positive contribution to society through our activities.

Our ability to achieve our strategic ambitions depends on how we respond to competitive forces. We continuously assess the external environment – the markets as well as the underlying economic, political, social and environmental drivers that shape them – to evaluate changes in competitive forces and business models.

We continuously seek to improve our operating performance, and maximise sustainable free cash flow, with an emphasis on health, safety, security, environment and asset performance, as well as adhering to our ethics and compliance principles.

Our people

Our people are essential to the successful delivery of the Shell strategy and to sustaining business performance over the long term. Performing competitively in the evolving energy landscape requires competent and empowered people working safely together across Shell.

We believe that diverse teams led by inclusive leaders deliver better safety and business performance.

Find out about diversity and inclusion at Shell

Learn more about careers with Shell

Shell at a glance in 2019

70+ countries where we operate

83,000 employees on December 31, 2019, with an additional 4,000 in certain New Energies and Downstream companies

74.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) sold during 2019

15 refineries in which we have interests

3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent we produce per day

Financial performance in 2019

Revenue: $344.9 billion

Income: $16.4 billion

Capital investment: $28.8 billion

Investment in research and development: $962 million

Fast facts for sustainable development in 2019

$116 million was spent on voluntary social investment worldwide. Of this:

1. $56 million was spent on local programmes for community development, disaster relief, education, road safety, health and biodiversity.
2. $60 million was in line with our global themes – access to energy, community skills, enterprise development and science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education.

Around $84 million of our total social investment spend in 2019 was in countries that are part of the UN Development Programme’s Human Development Index 2018. These countries have a gross domestic product of less than $15,000 a year per person. Shell also provides significant support in the form of voluntary work by its employees and donations of equipment.