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Shell is to shed about 425 management jobs at UK offices including Aberdeen and London this year, as part of a plan to cut 5,000 jobs from its 100,000-strong global workforce. 02-Nov-2009 Shell Shared Services is to relocate its Glasgow office from Gordon Street to a 61,000 sq ft unit at 141 Bothwell Street. 28-Oct-2009 Shell is expected to shed up to 10,000 of the 102,000 jobs in its global oil business, having announced plans for a major reorganisation programme. 28-May-2009 Shell is looking to sell its 33% stake in the £2bn London Array offshore wind project, which will include up to 341 turbines off the coast of Kent and East Sussex. 01-May-2008 Shell has announced plans to shed a further 180 onshore jobs at its Aberdeen-based oil operations by 2010. 24-Apr-2008 Shell has awarded £2bn of contracts to AT&T, T-Systems and EDS for the outsourcing of its IT and telephone systems, which will involve the transfer of about 3,000 staff worldwide and 170 staff in the UK. 01-Apr-2008 Shell is said to be considering plans to outsource its IT division to EDS, AT&T or T-systems in 2008, which could affect up to 3,200 jobs. 31-Dec-2007 Shell is to create a further 150 jobs at its shared service operation in Glasgow, in order to expand the existing 500 staff currently providing accounting services to sites worldwide. 20-Aug-2007 Shell and Exxon are looking to sell North Sea oil fields that produce about 54,000 barrels a day, with the transfer of about 400 onshore and offshore Shell staff. 18-Jun-2007 Shell has agreed a deal for the use of its gasification technology in the 900MW coal-fired power station being planned by Powerfuel at the Hatfield colliery near Doncaster. 18-Apr-2007 Shell is to invest £350m in improvements to the St Fergus gas processing plant in Aberdeenshire, the Mossmorran plant in Fife and the Braefoot Bay plant on the Firth of Forth. 11-Apr-2007 Shell, Eon and Core have won government approval to build the £1.5bn London Array wind farm in the Thames estuary by 2010, including 341 turbines. 19-Dec-2006 Shell is to create 100 new jobs at its financial shared service operation in Glasgow over the next year, having secured a £1m regional selective assistance grant from the Scottish Executive. 23-Oct-2006 Shell has won planning permission to build a new £25m "centre of excellence" in Aberdeen by 2009, providing space for about 1,000 staff. 22-Sep-2006 Shell is forming a strategic joint venture with Oil & Natural Gas Corporation of India, which will involve co-operation in exploration, production, new technology and the possible construction of refineries and petrochemical plants. 19-Jan-2006 Shell has announced plans to increase its capital expenditure by $4bn to $19bn next year, most of which will go towards bringing more oil and gas into production. 14-Dec-2005 Shell is to reorganise the management of its 580 UK-based filling stations with the loss of an unspecified number of jobs, and each manager will control up to six sites. 16-Nov-2005 Shell Wind-Energy, E.ON UK and CORE have submitted plans to build a £1.5bn wind farm with 270 turbines in the Thames estuary by 2011. 08-Jun-2005 Shell has announced a "significant" gas discovery at Onyx South West in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. 24-May-2005 Shell is to start the £1.5bn auction of its liquefied petroleum gas business in July. 18-May-2005 Shell is looking to sell the Auk, Fulmar, and Dunlin oil fields in the North Sea, and industry analysts expect the company to make similar disposals over the next two years. 22-Apr-2005 Shell has sold its InterGen power generation business to AIG and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan in a £1bn deal. 20-Apr-2005 Shell is planning to recruit 1,000 engineers to improve the accountability and performance of its worldwide oil exploration and production business. 18-Jan-2005 Shell is to start transporting supplies from Norway to its North Sea oil rigs in March, prompting speculation that jobs could be lost in the Aberdeen area. 14-Jan-2005 Shell is in preliminary talks to sell its London-based liquefied petroleum gas business to Texas Pacific Group and Bain Capital for an estimated £1.6bn. 12-Jan-2005 DCC is to acquire Shell Direct UK, the fuel distributor with 500 staff, for £14m. 28-Sep-2004 Shell has announced plans to invest an extra £83m in its North Sea exploration and production activities this year. 27-Aug-2004 Shell has sold its fuels business in Peru, including service stations, industrial and marine fuels, to Empressa Nacional del Petroleo of Chile for undisclosed terms. 18-Aug-2004 Shell is planning to outsource thousands of IT jobs from sites worldwide to India by 2006. 28-Apr-2004 Shell is to announce plans to build a £2.5bn natural gas to liquids plant in Qatar. 16-Oct-2003 Shell has announced plans to invest £620m in Russia's Salym oil field, in partnership with Sibir Energy. 17-Sep-2003 Cairn Energy is to acquire Shell's upstream assets in Bangladesh for £30m, in order to benefit from rising demand in the local gas market. 05-Aug-2003 Shell is to sell its 12 remaining petrol stations in Northern Ireland to John Henderson Group. 01-Aug-2003 Amec, in a joint venture with Jacobs Engineering and Stork, has won a £238m contract from Shell to provide maintenance and logistical support services for offshore platforms across the Southern North Sea. 17-Jul-2003 Shell has sold a number of its maturing North Sea assets to a start-up operation called Energy North Sea for about £100m, including 41% interests in the Montrose, Arbroath and Arkwright fields. 10-Jul-2003 Sainsbury is planning to open 100 convenience stores on Shell garage forecourts over the next three years, with the creation of up to 2,000 jobs. 03-Jun-2003 Shell is looking to sell or close up to 600 petrol stations in France, due to competition from hypermarkets. 01-May-2003 Shell is planning to close its regional headquarters in Lowestoft with the loss of 200 jobs, while 100 jobs are expected to be lost in Aberdeen. 03-Apr-2003 Shell is planning to shed more than 4,000 jobs, in a restructuring of its worldwide exploration and production operations. 27-Mar-2003 Shell is to invest £75m in clean fuel technology at the Stanlow Refinery in Cheshire, including the installation of new petrol-treating facilities and an upgrade to existing diesel facilities. 25-Mar-2003 Shell is planning to shed 350 jobs from its North Sea offshore workforce, in order to cut costs and streamline the business. 17-Mar-2003 Shell UK has unveiled a £175m investment package for oil exploration work in the southern North Sea over the next three years. 30-Jan-2003 Shell has announced plans to step up its cost reduction programme, and will shed about 2,000 jobs around the world this year. 02-Aug-2002 Shell is in discussions with China National Offshore Oil Corporation about plans to invest £255m in two oil and gas fields off the coast of northern China. 24-Jul-2002 Shell has paid £20m for a 20% stake in Iogen Energy, the Canadian company developing technology that uses straw to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from petrol-driven cars. 09-May-2002 Shell is to acquire Enterprise Oil, the exploration company operating in the North Sea, Norway and the Gulf of Mexico, for £3.5bn, and up to 400 jobs will be lost at Enterprise's offices in London and Aberdeen. 03-Apr-2002 Shell has made a major gas discovery in the President field in the Norwegian Sea, and an estimate of reserves is expected in May. 02-Apr-2002 Shell has announced plans to build a £350m liquefied natural gas terminal in Baja California, Mexico, by 2006. 28-Mar-2002 Shell is to acquire Pennzoil-Quaker State, the US lubricants company, for £1.2bn. 27-Mar-2002 Shell has announced plans to invest £5.3bn in the Nigerian energy sector over the next three years, in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Eni and TotalFinaElf. 21-Mar-2002 Shell Expro has won government approval to start work on the £300m Goldeneye natural gas project in the Outer Moray Firth, which will create 300 North Sea construction jobs. 14-Mar-2002 Shell is to shed 176 onshore jobs at its Aberdeen-based Expro operation over the next 18 months. 04-Feb-2002 Shell, Johnson Matthey and Mitsubishi are to launch an investment company for hydrogen fuel cell technology called Conduit Ventures, and each company will contribute £3.4m. 29-Jan-2002 Shell is to acquire full control of its solar energy joint venture with Siemens and Eon for undisclosed terms, and expects to have 15% of the global photovoltaic market. 24-Jan-2002 Shell is considering plans to invest £5.2bn in Nigerian oil and gas, as part of a consortium with Agip and TotalFinaElf. 09-Jan-2002 Shell is to start looking for acquisitions with a potential war chest of up to £13.9bn, and has also indicated that up to £5bn of poorly-performing assets could be sold off unless improvements are made. 18-Dec-2001 Shell is linking up with Akzo Nobel of the Netherlands to develop low-cost solar cell technology. 17-Oct-2001 Shell is to acquire Texaco's interest in the Equilon and Motiva joint ventures, in a £2.6bn deal that will make it the largest petrol retailer in the US. 10-Oct-2001 Shell Expro has unveiled plans to build an onshore gas plant at the St Fergus terminal near Peterhead, which will involve laying a 65-mile pipeline and the creation of 400 construction jobs and 25 permanent jobs. 19-Sep-2001 Shell has announced plans to build a floating liquefied natural gas plant, in order to speed up the development of oil and gas fields between Australia and East Timor. 10-Aug-2001 Shell is seeking acquisition targets to boost gas volumes, and would consider swapping parts of its oil portfolio for gas assets. 03-Aug-2001 Shell is planning to start work on the £200m Goldeneye gas field development in the Outer Moray Firth this winter, which is expected to create hundreds of local onshore civil engineering construction jobs. 27-Jul-2001 Shell is linking up with Westcoast Energy and Ballard Power Systems of Canada to form a private capital fund to invest in hydrogen fuel cell companies. 26-Jul-2001 Shell is said to be planning to launch a new vehicle leasing company in the UK, which would involve sales channels based around dealerships. 26-Jun-2001 Shell is planning to invest up to £700m in new energy projects over the next five years, in order to develop viable wind and solar generation operations. 15-Jun-2001 BP, Shell, Exxon and Phillips Petroleum are to invest $15bn in the Core Venture One gas exploration and development project in Saudi Arabia. 21-May-2001 Shell is working on plans for the development of a cluster of Northern North Sea oil and gas fields, which will be linked by pipeline to the Brent field, at an estimated cost of £260m. 04-May-2001 Shell is to invest $5.8bn in its Malaysian oil and gas operations over the next five years, including upstream operations, refining, IT and financial support. 12-Apr-2001 Shell and RWE are to merge their downstream oil operations in Germany to create a combined group with 24% of the country's petrol retailing market. 28-Mar-2001 Shell has announced plans to invest £2bn in the development of natural gas supplies in India, which will involve pipelines, gas-fired power projects and distribution for industrial and domestic use. 15-Mar-2001 Shell has launched a £1.5bn takeover bid for Barrett Resources, the US natural gas exploration and production group. 08-Mar-2001 Shell has sold 256 Brazilian petrol stations and three distribution centres to Agip of Italy for undisclosed terms. 12-Feb-2001 Shell Transport & Trading is to spin off its Kalido business, which develops data management software that enables large companies to monitor their global business performance. 12-Feb-2001 Shell is planning to build 500 petrol stations in China in partnership with Sinopec by 2004, at a cost of £100m. 11-Jan-2001 Shell is planning to acquire Fletcher Challenge's oil and gas interests in New Zealand and Brunei for £715m. 11-Oct-2000 Shell is planning to invest £4bn in the development of large-scale gas-to-liquid plants using its proprietary Shell middle distillate synthesis process, and the first projects will be in Egypt and Trinidad and Tobago. 06-Oct-2000 BP and Shell have confirmed plans to acquire a combined stake of 28% in Sinopec of China, with each investing £300m in the forthcoming sale of shares. 12-Sep-2000 Shell has announced plans to increase capital expenditure in the UK North Sea by 50% to £820m in 2001, which will involve the development of smaller fields that were not previously considered to be economic. 05-Sep-2000 Shell is considering plans to invest about £250m in the initial public offering of China National Offshore Oil Corp, which should improve its chances of participating in future oil retail and exploration projects in China. 22-Aug-2000 Shell is seeking clearance from the New Zealand competition authorities to acquire the energy division of Fletcher Challenge, in order to expand its exploration and production operations in the region. 22-Aug-2000 Shell is considering plans to increase its capital expenditure in areas such as upstream oil and gas exploration and production, as well as in some major liquefied natural gas projects. 04-Aug-2000 Texaco has confirmed a deal to exchange 375 petrol stations and two fuel terminals in Greece for 80 Shell petrol stations in the UK and Shell's 54% stake in the Plymouth fuel terminal. 02-Aug-2000 Shell is planning to nearly double its liquefied natural gas production capacity over the next four years, including the possibility of building an LNG import terminal near Shenzhen, China. 08-Jun-2000 Shell is planning a number of asset swaps with Marathon Oil in the UK, Russia, and the Gulf of Mexico, which will involve Marathon acquiring Shell's 28% stake in the Foinaven field west of the Shetlands. 02-Jun-2000 Shell has agreed to sell its coal assets, which are mainly in Australia, to Anglo American for £608m, as part of a strategy to focus on oil, gas and power, petrochemicals and renewables. 01-Jun-2000 Shell is in discussions to sell oil and gas assets to Woodside in return for a majority stake in the Australian energy company, and the deal could be worth up to £3bn. 18-May-2000 Shell has awarded a contract to Scottish Knowledge to set up a global e-university to provide online education and training services for its workforce. 02-May-2000 Shell is planning to make LPG available at four petrol stations in the Highlands by the end of this year, and wants the Scottish Parliament to persuade motorists in rural areas to switch to this cheaper fuel. 28-Apr-2000 Shell is forming a joint venture with Halliburton to develop intelligent well systems in Aberdeen, and has also announced an alliance with Beacon Group to invest in companies producing new technology for the oil industry. 13-Apr-2000 BP Amoco and Shell are linking up with 12 other companies to establish an e-procurement portal for the energy and petrochemicals industries. 12-Apr-2000 Shell is in discussions with a shortlist of potential bidders for its coal assets, and hopes to finalise a deal later this year. 10-Apr-2000 Shell International is linking up with Lend Lease for the £100m redevelopment of its Shell Centre site in London, which will involve a mix of entertainment, residential and commercial uses. 28-Mar-2000 Shell Expro is considering plans for a multi-million-pound gas development linking fields in the outer Moray Firth with the St Fergus terminal on the Buchan coast. 15-Mar-2000 Shell is planning to double its oil output in Nigeria to 1.5m barrels a day within three years. 14-Mar-2000 BP Amoco and Shell are to sell their Altura Energy joint venture in the US south-west to Occidental Petroleum for £2.3bn. 09-Mar-2000 Shell has sold its car care products business to management for £4m, and the new independent company will be named Carix Group. 06-Mar-2000 Shell Exploration & Production has won government approval for a £70m project to develop the Skiff gas field in the southern North Sea, which will create up to 100 jobs. 21-Feb-2000 Shell and PowerGen are planning to build two of the world's largest wind turbines off the Northumberland coast at Blythe, at a cost of £4m. 02-Feb-2000 Shell is introducing an internal market to reduce carbon emissions, in which its operations will commit to an annual 2% carbon reduction target. 27-Jan-2000 Burford is planning to build a £250m rail freight distribution and manufacturing park on land at Shell's Carrington chemicals plant in Manchester, which could lead to the creation of 14,000 jobs. 24-Jan-2000 Shell is to transfer ownership of 180 of its largest filling stations to London & Regional Properties, in a £300m sale-and-leaseback deal. 24-Dec-1999 Shell is to step up its cost-reduction programme by shedding 18,000 jobs by the end of next year, in order to make annual savings of $4bn. 16-Dec-1999 Lasmo is in negotiations to sell its stake in the Inam oil block in Azerbaijan to Shell for about £12m. 06-Dec-1999 Shell is to swap 80 of its petrol stations in the UK for 375 Texaco sites in Greece. 25-Nov-1999 Shell has announced an agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company to develop two fields in the northern Gulf. 15-Nov-1999 Shell Services International is considering the future of its IT support operation in Aberdeen, prompting speculation that it may be closed with the loss of up to 240 jobs. 10-Nov-1999 Shell and BASF are planning to merge their commodity plastics operations into a new joint venture company with annual sales of $6bn. 04-Nov-1999 Shell has announced plans to invest $1bn in the EA offshore oil field in Nigeria, which is expected to come onstream in 2002. 26-Oct-1999 Shell is selling a 45% stake in its $2bn Philippines gas project to Texaco, as part of a strategy to sell off non-core assets. 23-Oct-1999 Shell Energy is forming a joint venture with Eneco of the Netherlands to supply electricity to large corporations in the Benelux countries. 16-Oct-1999 Shell is planning to add new features to its Euro-Shell fuel payment card, such as credit facilities and financing for trucks, as part of a new push by the group into financial services. 04-Oct-1999 Shell has sold its Shell-Mex House property in London to Witkoff of the US for about £180m, and plans to vacate the offices by the end of the year. 07-Sep-1999 Shell has announced plans to sell its international coal operations, including assets in Australia and Venezuela, and the tender process could raise about $1bn. 31-Aug-1999 Shell is planning to build a leisure complex at its headquarters in London's South Bank, including multiplex cinema, restaurants and health club. 19-Aug-1999 Shell has announced an oil discovery in India's north-west desert, the first such find since the country opened exploration to multinational companies. 17-Aug-1999 Shell has received a $200m bid from Nova Chemicals of Canada for its worldwide polystyrene business, and other potential bidders are thought to include BASF and Atochem. 05-Aug-1999 Shell is in discussions to sell its Cressier refinery in Switzerland to Petroplus of the Netherlands, as part of a strategy to improve returns in its downstream operations. 15-Jul-1999 Shell's Montell subsidiary has sold a stake in its Don & Low polypropylene textile business to Thrace Plastics of Greece, as part of a strategy to focus on polyolefins. 13-Jul-1999 Shell Expro is to abandon its Lifestyle health and safety initiative after 11 years in a cost-cutting move, but its other in-house programmes will continue. 18-May-1999 BG has formed a consortium with Shell to acquire a controlling stake in the Brazilian gas company Comgas from the state of Sao Paulo, for £602m. 15-Apr-1999 Shell is transferring strategic control of its US division from Houston to London, as part of a strategy to centralise major decisions about capital expenditure. 12-Mar-1999 Shell is in discussions with the Nigerian government and other international oil companies about an $8.5bn plan to boost Nigerian oil production by almost a third. 08-Feb-1999 Shell Chemicals has sold Dumo, the Belgian manufacturer of polyurethane foam, to management for undisclosed terms. 21-Jan-1999 Shell International Renewables is buying a wood-fuelled plant at Kirkenaer in Norway that provides heat to a number of industrial and municipal customers, and will invest $4m upgrading it. 15-Jan-1999 Shell Chemicals is to buy a Teesside ethoxylation plant from ICI, but ICI will continue to operate the plant on Shell's behalf. 23-Dec-1998 Shell has announced a major restructuring that will result in the sale of 40% of its chemicals business, a 30% cut in capital expenditure, and substantial unspecified job losses. 15-Dec-1998 Shell and Texaco have dropped plans to form a marketing and refining joint venture in Europe. 01-Dec-1998 Shell is to open its first standalone food outlet next month, under the Select brand, and the central London store could be followed by others. 21-Nov-1998 Shell has announced plans to cut a further 3,000 jobs in European oil products, including 290 through the closure of the Shellhaven refinery. 13-Nov-1998 Shell is devising plans to further rationalise its chemicals business and to close more refineries. 06-Nov-1998 Shell Chemicals and ICI Polyurethanes are forming a production and marketing alliance in rigid polyurethane foam. 17-Oct-1998 Shell Chemicals is planning to sell its PVC and VCM business operations to Shin-Etsu Chemical of Japan. 09-Oct-1998 Shell UK has announced plans to cut an unspecified number of jobs at the Thornton Research Centre, which employs about 500 scientific and technical staff near Ellesmere Port. 05-Oct-1998 Shell Expro is to cut hundreds of onshore jobs in Aberdeen over the next few years, in response to the fall in oil prices. 26-Sep-1998 Shell has awarded a £40m contract to SubSea Offshore of Aberdeen to handle all its underwater engineering services in the North Sea for five years. 22-Sep-1998 Cairn Energy and Shell have agreed to push ahead with a strategic alliance in Bangladesh and north-east India. 22-Sep-1998 Shell is to close Shell-Mex House in the Strand, London, with most of the staff being transferred to other locations such as Aberdeen, in response to a deterioration in trading conditions. 19-Sep-1998 Shell Expro has warned its workforce that further cost-cutting is needed over the next 12 months, and up to 300 jobs are thought to be at risk. 11-Sep-1998 Shell and Texaco have reached agreement to combine their European refining and marketing assets, and Shell will get an 88% stake in the joint venture and a leading position in the retail fuel markets of several countries. 04-Sep-1998 Shell and Mobil are forming a joint venture to combine their Australian crude oil refining operations, in order to produce cost savings of over $100m. 31-Aug-1998 Shell has bought Texaco's industrial and commercial gas operations in the UK, prompting speculation that a bigger deal involving their European refining and marketing activities could follow. 28-Aug-1998 Shell UK is to promote the use of liquid petroleum gas by installing auto LP gas pumps at 200 of its forecourts. 26-Aug-1998 Shell International Oil Products is to link up with Daimler-Benz of Germany to develop fuel cell technology to cut vehicle pollution, combining Shell's catalytic partial oxidation technology with DBB's fuel cell systems. 18-Aug-1998 Shell is to cut back its capital investment programme due to the fall in oil prices and the financial crisis in Asia, with this year's spending on exploration and production expected to fall short of the planned $17bn by about $2bn. 07-Aug-1998 Shell has agreed a $1bn global asset swap with Occidental of the US, in which it will gain gas reserves in the Philippines and Malaysia in return for oil assets in Colombia and Yemen. 24-Jul-1998 Applied Extrusion Technologies of the US is to buy the European and Australian polypropylene film business of Montell, the plastics subsidiary of Shell, for $220m. 23-Jul-1998 Shell and Aramco of Saudi Arabia are planning to set up a downstream joint venture in India with a local partner, and are awaiting approval from the Indian government. 20-Jul-1998 Shell and Mobil have pulled out of plans for the $2.5bn development of the Camisea hydrocarbons deposit in Peru, having failed to agree terms with the government for distributing the gas. 17-Jul-1998 Shell is said to be in discussions with Texaco about the possible merger of their refining interests and petrol chains in Europe. 06-Jul-1998 Shell has pulled out of the bidding to acquire Russia's Rosneft oil company, saying that its two Russian partners in the consortium - Gazprom and Lukoil - do not have sufficient financial resources to help fund the deal. 04-Jul-1998 Shell and Premier Oil have agreed to pool their onshore exploration and production interests in Pakistan, which will enable Shell to build up a major presence in Pakistan's gas market. 18-Jun-1998 Shell UK is planning to close its Shell Haven refinery in Essex by the end of next year, due to overcapacity and low margins. 12-Jun-1998 Shell Oil is forming a joint venture with Halliburton to develop drilling equipment that will reduce the cost of deep-water exploration. 05-Jun-1998 Shell is planning a bid for Rosneft, the Russian oil company that is being sold off by the Russian government for about £1bn. 03-Jun-1998 Shell is planning to make a final decision in July as to whether to go ahead with the $3bn development of the Camisea natural gas field in Peru. 18-May-1998 Shell is to open its first non-petrol 24-hour convenience store in the Strand, London, under the Shell Select brand, in what is seen as a response to recent moves by the leading retailing groups to offer petrol. 01-May-1998 Shell has launched its Smart loyalty card scheme nationwide, which will enable customers to collect points for money spent at 15 different retailers and then redeem them for discounts with those retailers. 30-Apr-1998 Shell, Lasmo, Amerada Hess, International Petroleum and Desire Petroleum have begun transporting a rig to the Falkland Islands to search for oil, and operations could start by May. 07-Apr-1998 Shell is said to be considering a move to delay some of its North Sea oil development projects, due to falling oil prices and the possibility that the government is about to increase taxes on the industry. 23-Mar-1998 Shell has reached agreement for a six-month evaluation of a gas pipeline network across Ukraine, and it may end up with a commercial role in the transit of gas. 21-Feb-1998 Shell has reached agreement with Chevron to co-operate on the development of oil and gas projects in the Caspian Sea region. 17-Feb-1998 Shell is preparing an urgent review of its investment plans following the announcement of fourth quarter results that have been hit by a fall in oil prices and the Asian economic crisis. 13-Feb-1998 Shell has won permission to build a $4.5bn petrochemical complex in southern China, in a joint venture with China National Offshore Oil and other local organisations. 11-Feb-1998 Shell is to sell two major stakes in onshore Colombian oil fields in order to focus on offshore opportunities, which follows a similar decision by BP and has prompted speculation that the two companies are concerned about security issues. 10-Feb-1998 Shell is considering plans to set up offshore wind farms which could supply power to oil and gas installations or even to land-based grids. 06-Feb-1998 Shell has decided to recycle the Brent Spar oil storage platform by dismantling it and using it for the foundations for a new quayside at Mekjarvik in Norway. 30-Jan-1998 Gasunie, the Dutch gas company in which Shell and Esso have stakes, is trying to convince Centrica and other UK gas traders of the need for a second North Sea pipeline which would carry gas from Holland to Bacton in Norfolk when the UK is no longer self-sufficient. 19-Jan-1998 BP and Shell are beginning to move back into Iran, as BP has reopened its Tehran office and Shell is said to have reached agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company for exploration in neighbouring Turkmenistan. 12-Jan-1998 Tasco Europe, the accountancy joint venture between Shell International and Ernst & Young, is to start offering accounting services to pan-European companies, and will create 400 jobs in Glasgow over the next three years. 09-Jan-1998 BP, Shell and other major companies are increasing the pressure on the government to drop plans for North Sea oil tax increases, with warnings about potential damage to jobs and investment. 01-Jan-1998 Shell Oil and Texaco have agreed to sell a refinery in the state of Washington in order to win regulatory approval for the merger of their US refining and marketing operations. 22-Dec-1997 Shell is linking up with Saudi Aramco to look for openings in oil developments in new markets, and their first project will be in India. 29-Nov-1997 Shell has indicated that it may withdraw from coal production, which is mainly concentrated in Australia and Venezuela, partly due to environmental pressures. 19-Nov-1997 Shell is forming a joint venture with Gazprom, the Russian gas group, in order to produce 500,000 barrels of oil a day, while Shell will take up to half of a $2bn convertible bond that Gazprom will issue next year. 18-Nov-1997 Shell Oil has agreed to sell its refinery in Anacortes, Washington state, in order to win approval for its refining and marketing merger with Texaco and Star Enterprises. 11-Nov-1997 Shell and Cairn Energy have pledged to invest up to $5bn in oil and gas developments in Bangladesh if they are successful in their bids for six more exploration blocks. 08-Nov-1997 Shell is planning to link up with Gazprom to bid for Rosneft, Russia's only remaining big oil group yet to be privatised. 07-Nov-1997 Shell International Chemicals and BASF are having to delay their planned polyethylene joint venture following a request by the European Commission for more details. 23-Oct-1997 Shell is postponing plans to expand its retail business in the Philippines in response to the collapse of the peso and a ruling by the Supreme Court that temporarily prevents it from raising prices. 10-Oct-1997 Shell is seeking to follow its competitors into the increasingly important oil region of the southern Caspian Sea, saying it is interested in taking a stake in the Kyurdashi field. 08-Oct-1997 Shell is finalising plans to create a renewable energy business with an investment of $250m, and aims to win 10% of the world solar energy market by 2005. 07-Oct-1997 Shell has announced plans for a major reorganisation of its European petrol retailing business in order to improve the profitability of its network, with up to 3,000 job cuts over the next few years and the possible return of petrol pump attendants at some outlets. 01-Oct-1997 Shell is in discussions with Gasunie, the Dutch gas distributor, about the possibility of building a second gas pipeline across the North Sea to store supplies on the continent and then bring them back to meet peak winter demand. 26-Sep-1997 Shell Oil is acquiring Tejas Gas, the gas pipeline, processing and storage company that operates in Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana, for £900m. 25-Sep-1997 Shell is buying out Montedison's 50% stake in their Montell polypropylene joint venture for £1.25bn and is setting up a polyethylene joint venture with BASF, as part of a major restructuring of its chemicals business. 13-Sep-1997 Shell is planning a $2bn power generation project in India, in co-operation with the Essar Group, which will involve building a terminal to import LNG at Hazira and expanding the capacity of a nearby power station. 02-Sep-1997 Hays has agreed a £100m five-year contract to distribute goods to Shell's petrol station convenience stores, creating over 400 jobs at five distribution centres. 29-Aug-1997 Chevron of the US is to pull out of the UK oil refining and petrol retailing market due to intense competition, with about 450 Gulf service stations being sold to Shell UK. 21-Aug-1997 Shell is in discussions to acquire a 50% stake in International Generating Company, the power generation subsidiary of Bechtel of the US, as part of its five-year plan to expand its interests in electricity. 26-Jul-1997 Shell Exploration is acquiring a stake in Cairn Energy's operations in Bangladesh for £80m, and the two companies also plan to co-operate in India and other regions. 30-Apr-1997 Shell South Africa has sold its coal operations to JCI, the South African mining group, for $100m. 30-Apr-1997 Cairn Energy is in joint venture discussions with Shell concerning a joint application for exploration licences in Bangladesh. 20-Mar-1997 Shell is to start inviting human rights and environmental groups to participate in some of its sensitive projects in Latin America and Africa, having been the subject of international criticism recently. 17-Mar-1997 Shell is about to launch a new loyalty card scheme called Smart, in which it will link up with a consortium of high street retailers and provide points to cardholders which can be redeemed as discounts at any participating retailer. 12-Mar-1997 BP and Shell have made a "potentially commercial" oil discovery at Suilven to the west of the Shetland Islands. 04-Mar-1997 Shell Canada is increasing its stake in the Sable Island natural gas project in Nova Scotia from 26% to 35% through an asset swap with Mobil. 08-Feb-1997 Shell is planning a major move into the global power generation market, starting in Namibia and the Philippines, in order to exploit its natural gas and coal assets over the next five years. 17-Jan-1997 British Borneo Petroleum has acquired the rights to a Gulf of Mexico deep water field owned by Shell. 27-Dec-1996 Shell Oil is planning to invest £6bn in nine deep-water oil and gas projects in the Gulf of Mexico, with work starting before 2001. 12-Dec-1996 Shell is looking to sell its Cressier refinery in Switzerland, and is also closing two lubricants plants in Belgium and the Netherlands in order to focus lubricants output in Paris and Hamburg. 11-Dec-1996 A consortium formed by Shell and Enron has won the bidding to take control of Transportadora Boliviana de Hidrocarbarus, the Bolivian oil and gas transportation business which will operate a huge gas pipeline to south west Brazil. 07-Dec-1996 British Gas and Shell have refused to comment on reports that they have been discussing a possible merger, although some analysts believe the talks could be about the problems with "take-or-pay" contracts for North Sea gas. 19-Nov-1996 Shell Prospecting and Development Peru has invited Bechtel and Fluor Daniel, both from the US, to submit proposals to transport natural gas from the Camisea gas fields across the Andes to Lima. 05-Nov-1996 The government has come out in favour of Shell and Elf's plans to build a gas pipeline from three new North Sea fields to Bacton in Norfolk, a decision which will disappoint ICI who had wanted the gas to land at Teesside. 30-Oct-1996 Shell UK has won government approval for the £220m development of the satellite Kingfisher field in the North Sea, with production expected to start by the end of 1997. 24-Oct-1996 Shell and BASF are to merge their polyethylene businesses into a 50:50 joint venture in response to the industry's overcapacity and volatile prices. 11-Oct-1996 Shell Oil is planning to pool its US oil refining and marketing operations with Texaco by setting up a national network of petrol stations, oil dumps, pipelines and refineries, generating combined savings for the two companies of $2bn a year. 08-Oct-1996 The cost of decommissioning oil and gas platforms in the North Sea's UK sector could reach £8.7bn, with Shell having the largest liability of £1.2bn, according to a Wood Mackenzie study. 04-Oct-1996 Shell has linked up with Occidental Petroleum to offer to convert the Bataan nuclear power station in the Philippines, which was closed due to the possibility of earthquakes, into a 1,200MW gas-fired station. 06-Sep-1996 Melrose Energy is setting up a new company, Newco, to acquire 20% of Evikhon Oil, the Russian company that is jointly developing the Salym oilfield in Siberia with Shell. 06-Sep-1996 Shell and BP have reached agreement with the Shetland Islands council to ensure the continued operation of the Sullom Voe oil terminal past the year 2000. 07-Aug-1996 Royal Dutch/Shell is looking to form an alliance with a producer of PTA, the raw material for PET, in order to boost its underperforming chemicals business. 02-Aug-1996 Inspec is acquiring Shell's Fine Chemicals business for £200m, with the help of a £101m rights issue. 27-Jul-1996 Shell UK has won government approval for the fast-track development of the £300m Curlew oil and gas field in the North Sea. 24-Jul-1996 Shell is to combine its petroleum additives businesses with Exxon Chemicals' Paramins division to form a joint venture unit with 25% of the $6bn world petroleum additives market. 11-Jul-1996 Eastern Group, the regional electricity company, has negotiated to buy over £850m of gas from Shell and Esso for use in its power stations at King's Lynn and Peterborough. 18-Jun-1996 Shell is in discussions with other companies about the restructuring of its European refining operations, but details are unlikely to be announced until later this year. 17-May-1996 Shell and Enterprise Oil are planning to bid for some of the 15 onshore and offshore oil blocks being offered by the Romanian government this month. 09-Apr-1996 Shell is said to have made a big oil discovery off the Nigerian coast, a find which could lead to renewed criticism of its role in Nigeria. 08-Mar-1996 Shell Chemicals plans to link up with BASF to build a plant in either the Netherlands or Germany to produce 250,000 tonnes a year of polypropylene and 550,000 tonnes a year of styrene monomer. 22-Feb-1996 Royal Dutch Shell has cut 30% of its head office staff since April, with the number employed at its centralised service companies in London and the Netherlands falling from 3,900 to 2,800. 15-Feb-1996 Royal Dutch Shell is transferring the employment contracts of its tanker fleet's 1,000 officers to Singapore in order to cut costs. 18-Jan-1996
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