Business and property
Marketing
Mobility
Shell is the world’s largest mobility retailer, by number of sites, with more than 46,000 service stations operating in more than 70 countries at the end of 2021. We operate different models across these markets, from full ownership of retail sites through to brand licensing agreements.
Every day, around 32 million customers visit these sites to buy fuel, convenience items including beverages and fresh food, and services such as lubricant changes and car washes. We offer our business customers Shell Fleet Solutions, through which they can obtain items including fuel cards, road services and carbon-offset offers. At the end of 2021, Shell operated 12,400 convenience stores worldwide and we expect to grow this number to 15,000 by 2025.
We have more than 100 years’ experience in fuel development. Aided by our partnership with Scuderia Ferrari, we have concentrated on developing fuels with special formulations designed to clean engines and improve performance. We sold such fuels under the Shell V-Power brand in 66 countries in 2021.
In a growing number of markets, we are offering customers lower-emission products and services, including biofuels, electric vehicle fast charging, hydrogen and various gaseous fuels such as LNG. In eight markets, including the UK and the Netherlands, Shell Mobility provides customers with the opportunity to offset their carbon emissions.
Shell Mobility offers electric vehicle (EV) customers nearly 8,000 public charge points at Shell stations, on-street and at destinations like supermarkets. In addition, Shell Renewables and Energy Solutions operates around 80,000 private charge points and offers customers access to more than 300,000 charge points through its growing roaming networks in Europe, North America and South East Asia.
In 2021, Shell, Waitrose and Partners in the UK, and REWE and Penny supermarkets in Germany, announced the intention to install hundreds of charge points over the coming years. In January 2022, Shell opened its first EV charging hub in the UK in Fulham, London, where petrol and diesel pumps at an existing fuel station have been replaced with charge points. Shell Fulham features nine high-powered, ultra-rapid 175 kW charge points.
In 2021, Shell Mobility introduced a new premium fresh coffee and food offer, called Shell Café. The launch of Shell Café provides a consistent brand for drivers visiting Shell stations and addresses the evolving needs of customers with enhanced customer facilities and new on-site service offerings. By the end of 2021, there were 800 conversions across 14 markets in Europe with plans to expand to other regions in 2022.
We have around 50 hydrogen retail sites in Europe and North America, where drivers can fill up their vehicles with hydrogen fuel.
Lubricants
Shell Lubricants has been the number one global finished lubricants supplier in terms of market share for 15 consecutive years, according to Kline & Company data for 2021. Across more than 160 markets, we produce, market and sell technically advanced lubricants for passenger cars, motorcycles, trucks, coaches, and machinery used in manufacturing, mining, power generation, agriculture and construction.
We also make premium lubricants for conventional vehicles and Shell E-fluids for electric vehicles using gas-to-liquids (GTL) base oils that are made from natural gas at our Pearl GTL plant in Qatar (see “Integrated Gas”).
We have a global lubricants supply chain with a network of four base oil manufacturing plants, 33 lubricant blending plants, eight grease plants and six GTL base oil storage hubs.
Through our marine activities, we primarily provide the shipping and maritime sectors with lubricants. We also provide fuels, chemical products and related technical and digital services. We supply more than 200 grades of lubricants and seven types of fuel to vessels worldwide, ranging from large ocean-going tankers to small fishing boats.
Business-to-business
Our Business-to-business (B2B) activities encompass the sale of fuels, speciality products and services to a broad range of commercial customers.
Shell Aviation provides aviation fuel, lubricants and low-carbon solutions globally. In 2021, we took a final investment decision to build a new biofuels facility at the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam. This will be among the largest in Europe producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). We announced plans to produce SAF at our energy and chemicals parks in Germany and Singapore. We also invested in LanzaJet, a leading sustainable fuels technology company.
Shell Bitumen supplies customers across 60 markets and provides enough bitumen to resurface 500 kilometres of road lanes every day. It also invests in research and development to create innovative products.
Shell Sulphur Solutions is a business that manages the complete value chain of sulphur, from refining to marketing. The business provides sulphur for use in applications such as fertiliser, mining and chemicals. The business also licenses Shell Thiogro technologies to create innovative and custom sulphur-enhanced fertilisers.
Low-carbon fuels
Biofuels
In 2021, around 9.1 billion litres of biofuels went into Shell’s fuels worldwide, which includes sales made by Raízen, our joint venture in Brazil (Shell interest 44%, not operated by Shell).
Raízen produced around 2.5 billion litres of ethanol and around four million tonnes of sugar from sugar cane in 2021. The cellulosic ethanol plant at Raízen’s Costa Pinto mill in Brazil produced 19 million litres of ethanol in 2021.
In February 2021, Raízen announced the acquisition of Biosev, adding a further 50% of production capacity in low-carbon fuels. We believe this will allow Raízen to increase its bioethanol production capacity to 3.75 billion litres a year. The transaction contributes to Shell’s target to be a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050, in step with society.
RNG
Renewable natural gas (RNG), also known as biogas or biomethane, is gas derived from processing organic waste in a controlled environment until it is fully interchangeable with conventional natural gas.
In September 2021, we opened our first US renewable natural gas production facility in Junction City, Oregon. The plant uses locally sourced cow manure and agricultural residues to produce low-carbon fuel for heavy-duty road transport. We opened our first renewable compressed natural gas (R-CNG) fuelling site in the USA at our products distribution complex in Carson, California. The R-CNG is sourced from Shell’s portfolio of anaerobic digestion projects.
In Europe, we are offering liquefied renewable natural gas (bio-LNG) to customers with trucks powered by natural gas. In 2021, in collaboration with Nordsol, we opened our first European bio-LNG plant, in Amsterdam Westpoort, in the Netherlands. This will make us the first fuel provider to offer a blend of bio-LNG throughout the entire LNG network in the Netherlands.
Midstream
Shell Pipeline Company LP (Shell interest 100%) operates eight tank farms across the USA. It owns all the interest in one tank farm, and has majority-ownership interests in the other seven through its subsidiaries. It transports around 2 billion barrels of crude oil and refined products a year through around 6,000 kilometres of pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico and five US states. Our various non-Shell-operated ownership interests provide a further 13,000 kilometres of pipeline.
We carry more than 40 types of crude oil and more than 20 grades of fuel and chemicals, including gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, chemicals and ethylene.
Shell Midstream Partners, L.P., a master limited partnership that is headquartered in Houston, Texas; owns, operates, develops and acquires pipelines and other midstream and logistics assets. The Partnership’s assets include interests in entities that own (a) crude oil and refined products pipelines and terminals that serve as key infrastructure to transport onshore and offshore crude oil production to Gulf Coast and Midwest refining markets and deliver refined products from those markets to major demand centers and (b) storage tanks and financing receivables that are secured by pipelines, storage tanks, docks, truck and rail racks and other infrastructure used to stage and transport intermediate and finished products. The Partnership’s assets also include interests in entities that own natural gas and refinery gas pipelines that transport offshore natural gas to market hubs and deliver refinery gas from refineries and plants to chemical sites along the Gulf Coast. Shell controls the General Partner of Shell Midstream Partners.
See “Governance – Related Party Transactions” for information on transactions between Shell and Shell Midstream Partners, L.P.
Refining and trading
Refining
We have interests in 10 refineries worldwide, with a capacity to process a total of 1.6 million barrels of crude oil per day. The distribution of our refining capacity is 52% in Europe and Africa, 34% in the Americas and 14% in Asia.
Shell’s Refining business is transforming. We are concentrating our refineries portfolio to meet our strategic aims and to capitalise on the strong integration between our customers, trading operations, chemical plants and, increasingly, our low-carbon fuels output. We are transforming our refining sites into five energy and chemicals parks. These are expected to be Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Rheinland in Germany, Pulau Bukom in Singapore, Norco in Louisiana, USA, and Scotford in Alberta, Canada.
Transforming our refinery business will mean developing new facilities and converting or dismantling existing units. We plan to process less crude oil and use more renewable and recycled feedstocks such as hydrogen, biofuels and plastic waste.
In 2021, we completed the sale of the Puget Sound refinery near Anacortes, Washington, USA, to a subsidiary of HollyFrontier Corporation. We also completed the sale of Fredericia refinery, Denmark.
Trading and Supply
Through our main trading offices in London, Houston, Singapore and Rotterdam, we trade crude oil, low-carbon fuels, refined products, chemical feedstocks and environmental products. Trading and Supply trades in physical and financial contracts, lease storage and transportation capacities, and manages shipping and wholesale commercial fuel activities globally.
Operating in around 25 countries, with about 130 Shell and joint-venture terminals, we believe our supply and distribution infrastructure is well positioned to make deliveries around the world.
Shipping and Maritime enables the safe delivery of the Shell Trading and Supply contracts. This includes supplying feedstocks for our refineries and chemical plants, and finished products such as gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel to our Marketing businesses and customers.
Shell Wholesale Commercial Fuels provides fuels for transport, industry and heating ranging from reliable main-grade fuels to premium products.
Oil Sands
Synthetic crude oil is produced by mining bitumen-saturated sands, extracting the bitumen, and transporting it to a processing facility where hydrogen is added to make a wide range of feedstocks for refineries. The Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP) in Alberta, Canada, includes the Albian Sands mining and extraction operations, the Scotford upgrader and the Quest carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.
We have a 50% interest in 1745844 Alberta Ltd. (formerly known as Marathon Oil Canada Corporation), which holds a 20% interest in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project.
