Shell

A group of Dutch bankers and others formed the Koninklijke Nederlandse Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Petroleumbronnen in Nederlands-Indië (Royal Dutch Company for Exploitation of Oil Wells in the Dutch Indies), later known as Royal Dutch.⁠[1]

Marcus Samuel formed the “Shell” Transport and Trading Company for his oil interests; the UK companies register gives its incorporation date as October 18, 1897. His father’s import-export business had included importing Oriental shells, the origin of the name “Shell”; Marcus Samuel took over that business in 1878 and was made Viscount Bearsted in 1925.⁠[1][2]

The two companies combined their operations, forming the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, headed by two parent companies.⁠[1]

Royal Dutch/Shell disclosed that it had seriously overestimated its proven oil and gas reserves.⁠[1]

Forthdeal Limited, registered in England on February 5, 2002, was renamed Royal Dutch Shell plc on October 27, 2004, and later became the group’s unified parent company.⁠[3]

In 2005 the group became a single publicly traded company, Royal Dutch Shell plc. The UK companies register shows Shell Transport’s former public company name in use until July 20, 2005.⁠[1][2]

Shell’s Mars platform in the Gulf of Mexico was shut in from late August 2005 because of damage from Hurricane Katrina; before the shut-in it produced 140,000 barrels of oil and 156 million cubic feet of gas a day. Production restarted in May 2006, and Shell planned to return to pre-Katrina rates by the end of June.⁠[4]

Shell agreed in 2015 to acquire BG Group, and the deal closed in 2016.⁠[1]

Ahead of Hurricane Ida, Shell shut in production and evacuated all personnel from its Ursa, Mars, Olympus and Appomattox platforms, and production at Stones, Auger and Enchilada/Salsa was also shut in.⁠[5]

The hurricane on August 29 caused significant structural damage to the West Delta-143 facilities, the transfer point for production from the Mars corridor (Mars, Olympus and Ursa) to onshore terminals. In September Shell expected Mars and Ursa to stay offline until the first quarter of 2022, but both platforms restarted ahead of schedule in November 2021, bringing all Shell-operated Gulf of Mexico production back online once fully ramped up.⁠[6][7]

Shareholders approved moving the headquarters from The Hague to London in 2021. The UK companies register shows the name Royal Dutch Shell plc in use until January 21, 2022, after which the company became Shell plc.⁠[1][3]

Wael Sawan succeeded Ben van Beurden as chief executive in January 2023 and has been a director of Shell plc since January 1, 2023.⁠[1][8]

In 2025 Shell sold its onshore oil business in Nigeria.⁠[1]

After Tropical Storm Isaias formed in the Gulf of Mexico, Shell said on October 7 that it was curtailing Gulf operations, evacuating all personnel and shutting in production at its Mars, Olympus, Ursa, Vito and Appomattox assets, having already moved non-essential personnel from its Stones asset. The facilities Shell and BPBPBP (BP p.l.c.) is a British energy company headquartered in London; it began as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, founded in 1909, merged with Amoco in 1998 and experienced the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010. As of October 2026 its chief executive is Meg O’Neill.Open the full entry evacuated were mainly deepwater platforms close to the storm’s path; by October 8 about 63% of US Gulf oil output was shut in.⁠[9][10][11][12]

According to the Form 20-F annual report for fiscal 2025, filed in March 2026, Wael Sawan is chief executive, Sir Andrew Mackenzie is chair, and the principal executive offices are at Shell Centre, London; the report says the company recorded its highest quarterly production since 2005 in the US Gulf (referred to in the report as the Gulf of America) in 2025.⁠[13][3]

Shell: Official website: https://www.shell.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[14]