Marketing

Retail

Shell is the world’s largest mobility retailer, by number of sites, with 45 thousand service stations operating in close to 80 countries at the end of 2019. This is more sites than McDonalds or Zara, Carrefour, Starbucks and GAP put together. We operate different models across these markets, from full ownership of retail sites through to brand licensing agreements.

Every day, more than 30 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, a ‘one-stop-shop’ for their mobility and energy transition needs, providing items including fuel cards, road services and carbon-neutral offers. All of this is delivered by a team of approximately 500 thousand dedicated, passionate Service Champions on Shell-branded forecourts around the world.

The breadth of our operations gives us opportunities to connect with our customers in the online and offline worlds. Increasingly we are merging the two. The Shell App has around two million active users in 35 markets and was the first mobile fuel payment service that allowed customers to pay for fuel from their mobile phones.

We have more than 100 years’ experience in fuel development. Aided by our innovative 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 62 countries as at the end of 2019.

In a growing number of markets, we are offering customers lower-emission solutions, including biofuels, electric-vehicle fast-charging, hydrogen and various gaseous fuels like LNG. During 2019, we introduced carbon-neutral driving in the Netherlands and the UK, through which we offset customers’ emissions by purchasing carbon credits generated from projects that plant and protect nature like forests, wetlands and other natural ecosystems.

As one of the largest retailers worldwide, Shell Retail is uniquely positioned to capitalise on major trends in mobility and convenience retail. Our network keeps growing, and by 2025, we are planning to have 55 thousand Shell service stations in more than 90 countries, reaching more than 40 million customers every day. Key growth markets such as China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Russia will have a significant role in our future expansion – as we continue making life’s journeys better for all our customers.

Global commercial

Global Commercial is Shell’s business-to-business organisation which serves one million business customers. It comprises three businesses – Lubricants, Specialties (Bitumen and Sulphur) and Aviation. All have unique scale, strength of brand and capabilities.

Lubricants

Across more than 150 markets, we produce, market and sell technically advanced lubricants for passenger cars, motorcycles, trucks, coaches, and machinery used in the manufacturing, mining, power generation, agriculture and construction sectors. We have a global lubricants supply chain with a network of four base oil manufacturing plants, 29 lubricant blending plants, nine grease plants and four GTL base oil storage hubs. Through our marine activities, we primarily provide lubricants, but also fuels and related technical services, to the shipping and maritime sectors. We supply around 210 grades of lubricants and six types of fuel to vessels worldwide, ranging from large ocean-going tankers to small fishing boats.

Specialties

Shell Bitumen supplies customers across 52 markets and provides enough bitumen to resurface 500 kilometres of road lanes every day. Shell Bitumen is used on various road surfaces around the world, from urban roads and motorways to airport runways and Formula One racetracks. Shell is a leader in bitumen technology and has developed innovative bitumen products that can be mixed and laid at lower temperatures than conventional asphalt, which helps reduce energy use and CO₂ emissions.

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 fertilisers, mining and chemicals. It also develops new technologies for sulphur that benefit sectors such as agriculture. Shell’s patented Thiogro technologies have been used to produce nearly 1.5 million tonnes of sulphur-enhanced fertilisers, resulting in increased crop yields that help feed the world’s growing population.

Aviation

Shell Aviation has a refuelling and lubricants presence across more than 60 countries. Customers range from private pilots to the world’s largest airlines. Shell Aviation offers customers solutions to assist with reducing their emissions generated by the combustion of the fuel.

Biofuels

The international market for biofuels is growing, driven largely by the need to reduce GHG emissions from transport, but also to improve energy security and support the agricultural sector. Sustainable biofuels are expected to play an increasingly important role in helping to meet fuel needs and reduce CO₂ emissions.

Today, we are one of the world’s largest blenders and distributors of biofuels. We continue to build capacity in conventional biofuels that meet our corporate and social responsibility criteria. In 2019, we blended more than 10 billion litres of biofuels into our petrol and diesel worldwide. The production, purchase, trading, storage, blending and distribution of biofuels are part of our everyday business.

In 2011, Shell and Cosan launched the Raízen biofuels joint venture (Shell interest 50%) in Brazil to produce ethanol, sugar and electricity, and to supply, distribute and sell transport fuels. With a production capacity of more than 2.5 billion litres a year of ethanol from sugar cane, Raízen is one of the world’s largest sugar-cane ethanol producers. The deal marked our first move into the mass production of biofuels. In 2015, Raízen opened a second-generation biofuels plant, which uses technology from our earlier programmes with Iogen Energy. In 2019, Raízen produced 2.5 billion litres of ethanol and 3.8 million tonnes of sugar from sugar cane. The JV also produced 19.5 million litres of second-generation ethanol from sugar-cane bagasse – (residue from the initial extraction process) – that was obtained from a facility that is integrated with the Costa Pinto mill.

We continue to invest in the research and development of new ways to produce biofuels from sustainable feedstocks, such as wastes and cellulosic biomass from non-food crops. We are also investing in renewable natural gas, for use in natural-gas-fuelled vehicles. In 2018, we announced plans to expand the JC Biomethane plant in Oregon, USA, which we acquired in the same year. The plant transforms organic waste into methane-rich biogas through anaerobic digestion.

In 2019, Shell announced that it will support SkyNRG to develop Europe’s first dedicated sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production plant. Together with World Energy, we have agreements with Air France and Lufthansa to fuel their flights from San Francisco International Airport. The type of sustainable aviation fuel we supply can reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 85% compared with conventional jet fuel.

Pipelines

Shell Pipeline Company LP (Shell interest 100%) owns and operates 10 tank farms across the USA. It transports more than 2 billion barrels of crude oil and refined products a year through about 6,000 kilometres of pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico and five US states. Our various non-Shell-operated ownership interests provide about a further 14,000 pipeline kilometres.

We carry more than 40 types of crude oil and more than 20 grades of gasoline, as well as diesel, aviation fuel, chemicals and ethylene.

Shell Midstream Partners, L.P., a midstream master limited partnership, owns, operates, develops and acquires pipelines and other midstream assets in the USA. Its assets consist of interests in entities that own 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. It also delivers refined products from those markets to major demand centres. Its 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 chemicals sites along the Gulf Coast. Shell controls the general partner.

Shell Midstream Partners portfolio