Shell Australia

Shell Australia Pty Ltd
Industry Oil and gas
Founded Melbourne & Sydney, 1901
Headquarters Melbourne (downstream business - "Viva Energy Australia")
Perth (upstream business), Australia
Number of locations
 Branch office in Brisbane, supply base in Darwin & refinary (owned and operated by Viva Energy) in Geelong
Products Petrolium (Viva Energy), LNG, domestic gas, aviation fuel and others
Number of employees
 1000
Parent Royal Dutch Shell
Website www.shell.com.au

Shell Australia Pty Ltd is the Australian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. Shell has operated in Australia since 1901, initially delivering bulk fuel into Australia, then establishing storage and distribution terminals, oil refineries, and a network of service stations. It extended its Australian activities to oil exploration, petrochemicals and coal mining, and became a leading partner in Australia's largest resource development project, the North West Shelf Venture.[1]

In August 2014, Shell sold its downstream business in Australia, including its Geelong refinery and 870 retail sites, along with its bulk fuels, bitumen, chemicals and part of its lubricants businesses to Vitol, for A$2.9 billion.[2]

Aside from its aviation fuel business which was retained, Shell's remaining Australian activities are in upstream businesses, comprising exploration, liquified natural gas (LNG) and onshore coal seam gas.

The only major facility Shell has under direct operation in Australia is Noble Clyde Boudreaux drill-rig currently drilling the seven development wells on Prelude gas field in Timor sea.[3] Shell holds large reserves in the North West Shelf, Gorgon, Browse Basin, onshore coal seam gas Surat and Bowen Basin in Queensland. It also maintains a substantial exploration portfolio in Australia with major representation in permits and reserves offshore Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

A new head office in Perth, Western Australia is due to open in January 2016[4]

History

Shell's involvement in Australia began in 1901 when bulk fuel handling facilities commissioned by the 'Shell' Transport and Trading Company of London at Gore Bay, Sydney and on leased land in Melbourne, near Williamstown Railway Station. The arrival of the ship Turbo on 3 June was the first ever delivery of bulk kerosene to Australia.[1]

In 1905 the Shell Transport and Trading Company and the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company established the British Imperial Oil Company Ltd in Australia as a joint venture. In 1916, Shell began bulk delivery to garages equipped with pumps. In 1926 it acquired the Neptune Oil company; a year later the British Imperial Oil Company Ltd was renamed The Shell Company of Australia Limited, and in 1928 it purchased the Clyde oil refinery in Sydney.[1]

In 1954, Shell opened its second oil refinery in Geelong, and in 1959 established a detergent alkylate plant at Geelong and a petrochemical plant at Clyde. Its oil development arm was very active in the 1960s exploring large areas of onshore Australia as well as offshore opportunities.[1]

In 1984, domestic sales of LNG from the North West Shelf began, and a year later, Shell and its joint venture partners signed a sales and purchase agreement for North West Shelf LNG with eight Japanese electricity and gas utilities. By this stage Shell had increased its holding in joint venture operator Woodside Petroleum from 21% to 40%.[1]

Sale of downstream business

In August 2014, Shell sold its Australian refinery in Geelong and petrol stations for A$2.9 billion (US$2.6 billion) to Vitol, a Geneva-based company.[5] Vitol operates these assets as Viva Energy, which maintains Shell branding on its service stations under a brand licence arrangement.

Projects

Prelude

In May 2011, Royal Dutch Shell finalised its investment for the world's first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility. Shell had explored the concept of a FLNG in Namibia in the 1990s, but was abandoned due to unfavourable economic conditions. The initiative was relaunched in 2007 following the discovery of the offshore Prelude field located off Australia's north-west coast and was estimated to contain about 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent reserves.[6][7]

The floating vessel to be used for the Prelude field, known as Prelude FLNG, was still being constructed in Geoje, South Korea in mid-June 2014. Promoted as the longest floating structure in the world, the vessel will consist of a processing structure, measuring 93 metres in height from the deck, that will take in the equivalent of 110,000 barrels of oil per day in natural gas and cool it into liquefied natural gas for transport and sale in Asia. The hull of the vessel was completed in December 2013 and the Prelude is scheduled to start producing LNG in 2016—analysts estimated the total cost of construction at more than US$12 billion.[6][7][8]

Ningaloo

In July 2011, the Federal Government gave approval for the company to drill an exploration well 50 km to the west of the Ningaloo Marine Park. The drilling operation will occur at depths of around 1,300 metres, the deepest ever in Australian waters.[9]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Murray, Robert (2001). Go well - 100 years of Shell in Australia. Melbourne: Hargreen. ISBN 0 949905 69 0.
  2. ↑ "Vitol completes purchase of Shell's Australian downstream". Reuters. 13 August 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  3. ↑ http://www.afr.com/business/construction/shell-begins-drilling-at-prelude-floating-lng-20130916-jh44a
  4. ↑ http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/finding/commercial-investment/office/31630-shell-australia-expands-floor-space-in-perth-s-ks2.html
  5. ↑ "Vitol pays $2.6 billion for Shell's Australian refinery, petrol stations". Reuters. 21 Feb 2014. Retrieved 21 Feb 2014.
  6. 1 2 Peter Staas (3 June 2011). "Shell’s Prelude FLNG Project: An Offshore Revolution?". Investing Daily. Capitol Information Group, Inc. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  7. 1 2 Reuters and Associated Press (3 December 2013). "Shell’s massive Prelude hull world’s biggest-ever floating vessel and first ocean-based LNG plant". Financial Post. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  8. ↑ Ross Kelly (19 June 2014). "GDF Suez, Santos Halt Innovative LNG Plan in Australia". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  9. ↑ Rebecca Le May (7 July 2011). "Shell to drill off Ningaloo without review". The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media). Retrieved 8 July 2011.

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