The Shell Oil company, known as Royal Dutch Shell and Shell Transport & Trading is one of the major oil companies of the world. It was one of the original Seven Sisters formed after the break up of Standard Oil.
In fact there is no single Shell Oil company, rather there exist the Shell Group of companies.
These companies are headed by the Royal Dutch Shell company of the Netherlands and Shell Transport and Trading of the United Kingdom. These two companies hold all other subsidiary companies. The Shell interest in subsidiaries is always divided in the proportion 60:40 back to Royal Dutch and Shell T&T. In many cases, subsidiary companies are held in partnership with other, be these governments or others.
Although to meet Company Law in all countries there are nominated directors, the Shell Group of Companies is in fact run by an executive body whose members are chosen from the overall group.