shell case study tnc

shell case study

Shell is one of the richest companies on Earth, does business in many countries and deals with 25million customers every day.  It has refineries, drilling fields, 65,000 filling stations and employs many people worldwide.  Its headquarters are in The Hague in the Netherlands but the parent company, Royal Dutch Shell plc, is incorporated in the UK.

Shell by numbers (figures for 2013)         

Facts

·        Shell operate in +70 countries

·        92,000 average number of employees

·        19.6 million tonnes of equity LNG sold during the year

·        3.2 million barrels of oil equivalent  produced every day

·        30+ refineries and chemical plants run

 Financial performance 2013

• Revenue: $451.2 billion
• Income: $16.5 billion
• Net capital investment: $44 billion
• Investment in research and development: $1.3 billion

 Sustainable development 2013

• $12 billion spent in lower income countries.
• $750 million invested in safety and reliability of our refineries, chemical plants and distribution facilities.
• $159 million spent on voluntary social investment worldwide.

 The business is split into 3 major areas;

1.      Upstream - explores for and extracts crude oil and natural gas.

2.      Downstream - Refines supplies, trades and ships crude worldwide, manufactures and markets a range of products, and produces petrochemicals for industrial customers.

3.      Projects & Technology - manages delivery of Shell’s major projects and drives the research and innovation to create technology solutions.

The History of Shell

Shell started as an imported of goods into London in the late 19^th century and was a family firm that shipped seashells as ornaments from where it derives its name.  In 1890 it started shipping oil from Russia to Japan.  In 1907 it merged with Royal Dutch to become Royal Dutch Shell group and helped to fuel the boom in the automobile industry.  Shell US was a big money spinner and sold petrol in 48 states.  It is a truly multinational company, drilling, producing and refining then selling oil all over the world. 

It then started to branch into other areas such as the production of petrochemicals, for many plastics and other products.  It is also heavily involved in natural gas. 

Positive and negative impacts of Shell as a TNC

POSITIVE

THE ENVIRONMENT

Shell stated that they make every effort to clean up the environment after oil spills - “We must improve our environmental performance and make up for past mistakes, including cleaning up oil spills, preventing new ones and ending the continuous flaring of gas.  In 2004 we cleaned up 199 sites, exceeding our target of 100. …