| 1833 | Marcus Samuel opens a shop in London selling sea shells to
inquisitive Victorians. Soon, he is importing shells from across
the world |
| 1892 | Recognising an opportunity to export oil for cooking to the Far
East, Marcus` sun commissions an oil tanker to take Russian
kerosene to Singapore and Bangkok |
| 1906 | Shell and competitor Royal Dutch merge to form a worldwide
tanker company |
| 1918 | The company suffers losses during the First World War and some
of its overseas operations are shut down |
| 1919 | Shell Aviation Services established, making fuel for aircraft.
The first non-stop flight over the Atlantic is made - using Shell`s
fuel |
| 1929 | Shell begins to transport chemicals by sea |
| 1945 | Nearly half of the company`s fleet is lost during World War 2 -
tankers carried vital oil supplies to Britain during the war |
| 1950s-60s | Shell rebuilds its fleet and expands, fuelled by greater demand
for oil for cars and aircraft. Shell now supplies around 13% of the
world`s oil needs. |
| 1970s | Oil and gas is disovered in the North Sea. A rise in the price
of oil turns people towards natural gas. Shell now supplies nearly
half of Europe`s gas.
Shell also develops `supertankers` to bring crude oil to Britain
from the Middle East |
