Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

Registered UK Charity (No. 115342)

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 164,994 pages of information and 246,457 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Shell Oil Co

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1922 Shell Company of California and Roxana Petroleum merged with Union Oil Company of Delaware to form a holding company called Shell Union Oil Corporation. Approximately 65 percent of the holding company's shares were held by Royal Dutch/Shell Group.

1928 Shell Development Company was formed to conduct petrochemical research. The following year, after the discovery of chemicals that could be made from refinery by-products, the Shell Chemical Company began its manufacturing operation.

By 1929 Shell gasoline was being sold throughout the United States.

1929 Shell Petroleum Corporation purchased the New Orleans Refining Company, which later became one of Shell's largest manufacturing facilities.

1929 A new refinery was opened in Houston. This refinery was dedicated to manufacturing products destined for sale on the east coast of the United States and overseas.

Opened a plant for manufacturing synthetic ammonia in 1931 and a plant for making synthetic glycerine in 1937.

1939 Shell Oil Company of California merged with Shell Petroleum Corporation; the name was subsequently changed to Shell Oil Company, Inc.

1949 New York became the sole headquarters. The company name was changed again to Shell Oil Company. Shell increased its oil exploration activities and expanded production to satisfy the growing demand. New chemical plants were built that enabled Shell to become a leading producer of epoxy resins, ethylene, synthetic rubber, detergent alcohols, and other chemicals.

1950s Shell pioneered the development of new fuel products during the 1950s, including jet fuel and high-octane unleaded gasoline for automobiles.

By the 1960s growing environmental concerns led Shell to invest heavily in systems intended to reduce pollution and to conserve energy in its plants. In the following decade, the company began publishing a series of consumer-oriented booklets on such topics as car maintenance and energy conservation. The company also began drilling for oil and natural gas deposits in Alaska and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

1970 Shell Oil moved its headquarters to Houston.

1974 The company expanded into coal production with the formation of the Shell Mining Company.

From 1978 the company upgraded a number of its refineries and closed many of its less profitable service stations in order to concentrate on those in metropolitan areas with higher sales volume.

1979 Shell Oil acquired the Californian Belridge Oil Company, which was subsequently renamed Kernridge Oil Company.

1985 Royal Dutch Shell bought out the remaining 30 percent shareholding in Shell Oil (USA).

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