Canada

Shell has been operating in Canada since 1911 and has around 1,287 mineral leases, mainly in Alberta and British Columbia. We produce and market natural gas, natural gas liquids, synthetic crude oil and bitumen. In 2017, Shell divested its undeveloped oil sands interests in Canada and reduced its interest in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP) from 60% to 10%. Shell continues to operate AOSP’s Scotford upgrader and Quest carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.

Shell has a downstream business anchored in its Sarnia refinery (Ontario) and its Scotford refinery and upgrader (Alberta), as well as its two petrochemical plants near Edmonton. Shell also has around 1,400 retail sites across Canada, as well as aviation, sulphur, lubricants and supply and trading businesses.

In 2018, Shell and its partners in the LNG Canada joint venture took a positive final investment decision, and Shell reduced its ownership interest in the project to 40% from 50%.

Country Financial Analysis

Profit before tax fluctuates due to the integrated portfolio and is impacted by oil and gas prices. The Canadian upstream business encompasses assets at different stages of the business cycle, including those with an impairment of the asset value and decommissioning costs. For tax purposes, profits may be offset by losses incurred in previous years in compliance with Canadian tax law. In the table above, the tax paid amount is because of profit in entities that have not had losses in previous years.

Our Payments to Governments Report for 2018 also shows that Shell paid around $103 million in royalties and fees.