Chemicals

Shell has been involved in the chemicals industry for nearly 80 years and has manufacturing facilities in every major chemicals market.

At the start of this decade, about a quarter of Shell's chemicals assets were in Asia Pacific and the Middle East. As part of our strategy to deliver a profitable downstream business, this is expected to rise to more than a third by 2010.

In 2006, the Nanhai petrochemical complex joint venture opened in southeast China, while a new integrated petrochemical facility, the Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex, will start up in Singapore at the end of the decade. We are continuing to focus on expanding our chemical interests in the Middle East.

Shell researchers have developed many leading chemical industry technologies. For example, our Shell higher olefins process helps customers improve their formulations for products as diverse as drilling fluids for use in the oil and gas industry, household detergents and personal care products such as shampoo.

Continuous improvements in our catalyst technologies help to optimize refining processes and create new products.

Sustainable development underpins many of our innovations. We apply our solvents expertise to offer a more sustainable technique for preserving timber to countries that use it for construction. We also supply molecules that are used to make detergents for use at lower temperatures. We seek to ensure that our activities meet our stakeholders’ environmental and social concerns and comply with our own health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) rules.