Shell (called Shell Oil in North America), has its headquarters split between the Shell Centre in London and The Hague, Netherlands. It is properly named Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and 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. of the UK. ADRs are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under RD (Royal Dutch) and SC (Shell).
One of the original Seven Sisters, Royal Dutch/Shell is the world’s second largest oil company and a major player in the petrochemical industry and the solar business. 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 Petroleum Company of the Netherlands and The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company, p.l.c. of the United Kingdom. These two companies hold all other subsidiary companies. The Shell interest in subsidiaries is always divided 60/40 in favor of Royal Dutch. In many cases, subsidiary companies are held in partnership with others, 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 called the "Committee of Managing Directors", 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.
Over the years Shell has been criticized by environmental and human rights groups for a number of their operations, especially in South Africa and Nigeria. Their involvement in Nigeria came to the forefront after the execution of dissident Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others. Shell was also attacked by Green Peace for plans to sink an old oil platform (correction: it was not a drilling platform, but an oil transport and hub station) in the North Sea (correction: the platform was planned to be sunk in the atlantic) and eventually agreed to disassemble it onshore in Norway.
In the United States, Shell has run a major advertising campaign to promote claims of higher mileage by using their gasolines.
In Canada, Shell Canada settled a lawsuit in which an additive in their gasolines created problems on fuel guages, especially in autmobiles produced by the American Big Three.
On June 17th of 2004, Shell chairman Ron Oxburgh made a statement to The Guardian that in the face of the threat of global warming he was "really very worried for the planet”. As a remedy he proposed the practice of carbon sequestration, which involves removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and burying it underground. "Sequestration is difficult, but if we don't have sequestration then I see very little hope for the world," he said.
This statement has angered other members of the industry.