Technology solutions and deployment

Potential energy projects can involve oil and gas fields, transnational pipelines, crude-oil refineries, natural gas liquefaction trains, or petrochemical plants. Teams of scientists and engineers must develop ways in which a potential project could be feasibly turned into reality and then select the best option for a positive final investment decision. P&T has the in-house expertise to do this in collaboration with Shell’s businesses, often relying on the application of innovative technology delivered by P&T’s R&D programme.

One key area of focus is project scoping. The design and technical specification of a project should – first and foremost – be aimed at assuring a minimum acceptable performance. Scope changes to give a project greater value; for example, by increasing throughput; or to make it more robust against risks, for example, by increasing operational flexibility; must then only be accepted with full awareness of their cost and value trade-offs. Above all the project must be kept competitive, relative to comparable projects.

P&T’s scientists and engineers also apply their expertise to formulate fuels, lubricants and other end products that differentiate Shell from other oil companies. And they develop proprietary processes for manufacturing derivative chemicals. We embedded such processes in the Nanhai and Pennsylvania petrochemicals complexes, for example.

Finally, P&T supplies catalysts, licenses technology and provides technical consultancy services to non-Shell parties.