The
Shell Transport and Trading Company and the Royal
Dutch Petroleum Company are the parent companies of
Shell Canada. Shell is active in over 140 countries
with each country having an independent operating
company of which Shell Canada is one. The overall
company mandate is that these operating companies
are run by people who understand the local
environment and are given the authority and autonomy
to make all normal business decisions.
Shell appeared in North America
when oil was discovered in Texas. In 1901, Shell
Transport arranged with one of its producers to
transport and distribute the oil, making the company
a world supplier of gasoline, kerosene, and fuel
oil. This placed the company in direct competition
with the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. The joint
venture of Shell and Royal Dutch continued to expand
and in 1903 they established the jointly-owned
Asiatic Petroleum Company Limited. In 1907, an
agreement was signed uniting the Royal Dutch and
Shell Group of Companies. The two parent companies
became holding companies, with Royal Dutch holding
60 percent ownership and Shell Transport 40 percent
ownership, which still exists today.
With a start up capital of only
$50,000 the Royal Dutch and Shell Group opened for
business in Canada in 1911. The original Canadian
headquarters was in Montreal but they moved in 1930
to Toronto. The company was also in western Canada
to establish a bulk fuel plant near Vancouver. In
1929, Shell Oil in British Columbia was incorporated
with a network of nineteen service stations. Shell
Canada diversified its operations in 1932 by opening
the Shellburn Refinery. A year later the Montréal
East Refinery was started, producing 5,000 barrels a
day.
Exploration for oil in western
Canada began in 1939 by the Shell Oil Co. of New
York in an effort to maintain supplies during the
Second World War. Separately, Shell Canada opened an
office in Calgary and started exploring the west. As
the war progressed, Shell Canada was involved in
shipping oil on British and Canadian tankers to the
United Kingdom. In an effort to keep the supply of
oil going, Shell Canada made concerted efforts to
locate oil reserves in the west. The results were
the major natural gas fields discovered at Jumping
Pound in Alberta in 1944.
Shell became a fully-integrated
petroleum company in 1957 when it bought out all the
Canadian exploration and production properties of
US-based Shell Oil Co., and continued to expand
its retail activities at the same time. Today, Shell
Canada is a major manufacturer, distributor, and
marketer of refined petroleum products. Shell also
produces natural gas, natural gas liquids, bitumen,
and sulphur. Shell’s recent Oil Sands endeavor has
resulted in an increase of more than 40 percent in
hydrocarbon production.
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