Shell Oil, properly named Royal Dutch Shell, was founded in 1890 by Jean Kessler, along with Henri Deterding and Hugo Loudon, when a Royal charter was granted by the Queen of the Netherlands to a small oil exploration company known as “Royal Dutch.” To compete against the giant American oil company, Standard Oil, in 1907 Royal Dutch merged with The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company, p.l.c. in the UK (NYSE: RD and NYSE: SC).
One of the original Seven Sisters, Royal Dutch Shell operates in more than 100 countries and is the world’s largest petrochemicals company and the second largest oil company in the world. Shell has five core businesses: Exploration and Production, Oil Products, Downstream Gas and Power, Chemicals and Renewables, and operates in more than 140 countries across the world.
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.
An original investor, the largest single shareholder of Royal Dutch Shell is the holding company for the Dutch Royal Family, set up by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.