UPDATED MONDAY 26 APRIL 2010
“In an obsessively cost conscious environment such as the one that rules in Shell at the moment all labour-intensive sectors are at risk irrespective of their intrinsic value or their competence or even the likely long-term demand for their products and services.”
Posting on Shell Blog by Wilt Staph on Apr 24th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
A couple of decades ago Shell had five refineries in the United Kingdom when the sale of Stanlow is completed soon they will have none. Is this because refining is a sunset industry with no growth potential and no chance of earning returns? Not if you take note of reliable global demand forecasts it isnt. The US Joint Forces Command the top of the American armed forces pyramid has recently said that globally a severe energy crunch is inevitable without massive expansion of production and refining capacity. Most other forecasters agree that the planet will need substantially more not less refining capability in the years ahead. So why has Shell retreated so dramatically from refining and what are the implications for the new Shell which will emerge from the radical reviews underway under Peter Voser?