Shell plc

Shell plc is a British energy company headquartered in London that produces and trades oil and natural gas, operates liquefied natural gas projects, refines fuels and makes chemicals. It traces its origins to Royal Dutch, founded in 1890, and Shell Transport and Trading, formed in 1897, and it reported 2025 income attributable to shareholders of $17.8 billion.

History of Shell

The Shell name goes back to 1833, when Marcus Samuel Sr started a small trading business in London’s East End dealing in antiques and painted seashells. His sons founded Marcus Samuel and Company in London and Samuel Samuel and Company in Japan in 1878. Marcus Samuel formed the Shell Transport and Trading Company in 1897 to hold his oil interests.

Royal Dutch was founded in The Hague in 1890 by Aeilko Zijlker to drill for oil in the Dutch East Indies. Henri Deterding joined as a bookkeeper in 1896 and became chief executive in 1901. In 1903 Shell Transport, Royal Dutch and the Rothschild family formed the Asiatic Petroleum Company.

On January 1, 1907, Royal Dutch and Shell Transport entered a formal alliance in which Royal Dutch took 60 percent and Shell Transport 40 percent. Both stayed separate companies, and the arrangement was not a single legal entity. Expansion followed into Romania in 1906, Russia in 1910, Egypt in 1911, Venezuela in 1913 and Trinidad in 1914.

The group’s later milestones include the discovery of the Groningen gas field in the Netherlands in 1959 through a joint venture called NAM, and a 50-50 joint venture with Esso in 1964 to explore the U.K. continental shelf. In 2004 the group cut its reserves from 20 billion to 16 billion barrels, and the chair and an executive resigned.

On July 20, 2005, the two-part group was replaced by a single company, Royal Dutch Shell plc, with one board and a continued 60-40 split. Jeroen van der Veer became its first chief executive. Shell agreed in 2015 to buy BG Group, a major producer of liquefied natural gas, and completed the deal in February 2016.

In November 2021 Shell announced plans to move its headquarters to London and drop its dual share structure. The name change from Royal Dutch Shell plc to Shell plc was registered on January 21, 2022.

Products and services of Shell

Shell reports six areas of activity. Integrated Gas, Upstream, Marketing, Chemicals and Products, and Renewables and Energy Solutions are its operating segments, and Corporate holds central items. Upstream finds and produces oil and gas, while Integrated Gas turns natural gas into liquefied natural gas, which is gas cooled to a liquid so it can be shipped.

Shell’s total oil and gas production available for sale was 2.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2025, compared with 2.836 million in 2024, a decline of 1 percent. A barrel of oil equivalent is a unit that converts gas and oil volumes to one common measure. Integrated Gas produced 931,000 of that and Upstream 1.828 million.

Liquefaction volumes of liquefied natural gas were 28.42 million tonnes, down 2 percent, and LNG sales volumes were 72.94 million tonnes, up 11 percent. LNG sales volumes and liquefaction volumes are reported as separate measures.

Corporate structure and operations

Shell reported income attributable to shareholders of $17.838 billion for 2025, compared with $16.094 billion in 2024. Adjusted earnings, a measure that removes items the company considers one-off, were $18.529 billion, down 22 percent from $23.716 billion. Adjusted EBITDA was $56.135 billion, down 15 percent.

Cash flow from operating activities was $42.863 billion, and cash capital expenditure was $20.915 billion. Free cash flow, which is the cash left after investment, was $26.052 billion. Identified items, which are one-off gains and losses, were a net loss of $0.1 billion in 2025 compared with a net loss of $7.4 billion in 2024. Net debt at the end of 2025 was $45.687 billion, and gearing, the ratio of net debt to total capital, was 20.7 percent.

By segment, adjusted earnings in 2025 were $8.024 billion for Integrated Gas, $7.442 billion for Upstream, $3.994 billion for Marketing, $1.051 billion for Chemicals and Products and $172 million for Renewables and Energy Solutions. Corporate had a loss of $1.87 billion.

Impact of Shell

Britannica describes Shell as active in exploring for, producing, refining and marketing crude oil and natural gas in more than 90 countries, and as a supplier of chemical feedstocks to many industries. Its output of fossil fuel places it in the center of debates about energy supply and emissions.

The company also takes part in the shift toward lower-carbon energy through its Renewables and Energy Solutions segment, which earned $172 million in adjusted earnings in 2025 but reported a loss on an income basis. This segment is much smaller than gas and oil, and the figures show that renewable energy remains a small part of Shell’s results.

Criticism and controversies

Shell has faced legal challenges over its role in climate change. In 2021 a Dutch court ordered Shell to cut its net carbon dioxide emissions by 45 percent by the end of 2030 compared with 2019, finding that its emissions posed a serious threat and that it had an individual responsibility to reduce them. The environmental group Milieudefensie brought the case.

In November 2024 the Hague Court of Appeal overturned that decision. Judge Carla Joustra said the court accepted that protecting people from climate change is a human right but that a cut required of Shell would not necessarily reduce global emissions. Milieudefensie said it would study the ruling, and Shell said its net-zero goal for 2050 stays central to its strategy.

Shell has also faced claims over oil spills in the Niger Delta in Nigeria. After a pipeline burst in 2008 released thousands of barrels of oil near Bodo, Shell admitted responsibility and agreed to pay the community $110 million. The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre later reported that the promised cleanup of Bodo Creek had not started, and that the community could return to court if there was no meaningful progress.

Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed November 4, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue