Shell’s Downstream organisation is made up of a number of different business activities, part of an integrated value chain, that collectively turn crude oil into a range of refined products, which are moved and marketed around the world for domestic, industrial and transport use. The products include gasoline, diesel, heating oil, aviation fuel, marine fuel, liquefied natural gas (LNG) for transport, lubricants, bitumen, sulphur and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). In addition, we produce and sell petrochemicals for industrial use worldwide.
In 2013, Shell Downstream
- sustained strong reliability at our chemicals plants, with best ever unplanned downtime performance. Refining reliability tracked slightly ahead of the five-year average;
- delivered record bitumen production of 3 thousand tonnes per day through collaboration of our Pulau Bukom and Specialities businesses – a 36% increase over 2012 levels;
- launched in China three new high specification products within our top Shell Helix Ultra range of engine oils. These products promote our unique PurePlus Technology, a formulation using natural gas derived base oils from our Pearl gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar, and take advantage of operations across the hydrocarbon value chain;
- demonstrated our commitment to growth in China with the openings of our largest grease plant worldwide in Zhuhai and our expanded lubricant blending plant in Zhapu;
- started construction on a new world-scale base oil manufacturing plant in Daesan, South Korea, as part of a new joint venture. The plant will have an annual capacity of approximately 650 thousand tonnes and will help meet the region’s growing lubricant demand;
- celebrated a gas-to-liquids milestone for Shell and Qatar, offering GTL jet fuel to customers at Doha International Airport with first use on a commercial flight to London;
- announced major investments to expand and upgrade our Chemicals manufacturing site on Jurong Island, Singapore;
- extended our retail sites network in Poland with acquisition of 105 unmanned high throughput locations; and
- completed the sale of our shareholdings in the Kralupy and Litvinov refineries in the Czech Republic. We also sold our interest in the Mongstad refinery, Norway. Under this same transaction, we acquired the remaining interest in the Pernis refinery in the Netherlands, returning it to 100% Shell ownership.