Bash Chile history

When Marcus Samuel senior died in 1870 he passed the business on to his two sons, Marcus junior and Samuel, who began to expand it.

In 1901 when oil was found in Texas, Marcus Samuel junior pulled off the deal of a lifetime and won the transport and distribution rights from his company’s main competitor, Standard Oil.

The years that followed also gave Shell many exciting opportunities to demonstrate the quality of its products in the fast-developing market for petrol (gasoline). These included record-breaking races, flights and journeys of exploration. For example, in 1907 Prince Borghese won the Peking to Paris motor rally using Shell Spirit motor oil.

All Shell tankers came under Government control and many Shell staff showed great bravery in keeping them going, including the flying ace Douglas Bader who worked in the aviation department of Asiatic Petroleum before joining the RAF in 1939.

In 1947, the first commercially viable offshore well was drilled in the Gulf of Mexico and within 8 years the company had over 300 such wells.

At the same time, Shell was a partner in the first sea transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 1964 – from the Algeria to the UK – opening up a whole new market for the business.

In 1993 Shell opened the world’s first commercial GTL plant in Bintulu, Malaysia, a pioneering step that set the stage for the increasing role this fuel would play over the next decade.

In 2012, the company completed Pearl GTL, in Qatar, the world’s largest source of GTL products.

In 2015, Shell announced that it would be buying BG Group, a UK oil and gas production company.

The acquisition was completed in February 2016, expanding the company’s oil and gas portfolio.