Section C Flashcards
Transnational Corporation
Shell
25 million customers a day → One of the richest companies on Earth
HAS:
→ Refineries
→ Drilling fields
→ 65k filling stations
→ Employs many people
Headquarters → The Hague, Netherlands
Parent Company → Royal Dutch Shell → Incorporated in the UK
FIGURES (2013)
Operate in 70+ countries
92k employees
19.6 million tonnes of equity LNG
3.2 million oil equivalent barrels produced EVERY DAY
30+ refineries and chemical plants run
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE (2013)
REVENUE: $451.2 billion
INCOME: $16.5 billion
NET CAPITAL INVESTMENT: $44 billion
INVESTMENT IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: $1.3 billion
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (2013)
$12 billion spent on lower income countries
$750 million invested in safety and reliability of refineries, chemical plants and distribution facilities
$159 million spent on voluntary social investment worldwide
THE BUSINESS IS SPLIT INTO 3 MAJOR AREAS
UPSTREAM → Explores for and extracts crude oil and natural gas
DOWNSTREAM → Refines supplies, trades and ships crude worldwide, manufactures and markets a range of products, and produces petrochemicals for industrial customers.
PROJECTS AND TECHNOLOGY → Manages delivery of shell’s major projects and drives the research and innovation to create technology solutions.
PROS AND CONS OF SHELL AS AN TNC
POSITIVES:
THE ENVIRONMENT
→ Making effort to clean oil spill sites → 2004, 119 sites
→ 2000; Shell foundation → $30 million; sustainability and biodiversity in local communities
→ Geothermal, solar and wind energy is used as part of their renewable energy program
→ Targets: renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions
→ Since the 90s has pulled out of Cameroon and Pakistan on human rights issues
NEGATIVES:
Oil Spills
1947: tanker ship blew up; 10 deaths
1968: Netherlands refinery fire; 2 deaths; $120 million damage
1970: Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout; 4 deaths; $25 million damage
1980: Hawaii terminal fire; 2 deaths; $3 million damage
1988: San Francisco bay 400k gallon spill; birds killed; wetland damaged
1989: 150 tonnes of crude oil leak into River Mersey - Widespread environmental damage
CHEMICALS
In the 1940s Shell marketed poisonous pesticides called DDT which killed people and pests
Took too long to pull them out of the market and poisoned soil and wildlife.
Washington outlawed them, bu they kept selling in the third world
BRENT SPAR
Backlash after disposing the Brent spar, a large oil tank, into the sea
Greenpeace protested but Shell evicted them. This sparked controversy.
