Annual Reports and publications

What do we do?

Key facts for 2015: Countries where we operated: +70 , Average number of people we employed: 93,000 , Income for the period: $2.2 bn , Cash flow from operating activities: $30 bn , Our daily production in barrels of oil equivalent: 3 million , Spent on R&D: $1.1 bn

Shell is one of the world's largest independent oil and gas companies in terms of market capitalisation, operating cash flow and production.

Countries where we operated: +70
Average number of people we employed: 93,000
Income for the period: $2.2 bn
Cash flow from operating activities: $30 bn
Our daily production in barrels of oil equivalent: 3 million
Spent on R&D: $1.1 bn

Find out more in the Annual Report and Form 20-F:

Business overview

What is our strategy?

We are re-shaping Shell to create a world-class investment case for shareholders. This strategy is underpinned by Shell’s outlook for the energy sector and substantial changes in the world around us.

Shell ambition:

World-class investment case
Relevant in our industry + growing value share
Reducing our carbon intensity
Shared value

Slide showing the Royal Dutch Shell plc strategy

Our strategy

Download the 'our strategy' slide

Slide from the 2016 capital markets day presentation about the Royal Dutch Shell plc strategy

Our strategic themes

Download the 'strategic themes' slide

Find out more in the Investors' Handbook:

Project and technology

What happened in our markets?

World oil market, data in million barrels per day. Demand in 2014: 92.8, supply 93.7, surplus 0.9. Demand in 2015 94.5, supply 96.3, surplus 1.8 (+100%) — World oil market: demand and supply per year in million barrels per day

Global oil demand rose by 1.8% (1.7 million barrels per day (b/d)) in 2015, according to the International Energy Agency's (IEA) January 2016 Oil Market Report.

As in 2014, oil supply continued to grow faster than demand. Crude oil prices remained low and ended the year at around $36/b for Brent compared with $54/b at the start of the year.

Find out more in the Annual Report and Form 20-F:

Market overview

How are we performing?

Bar charts showing our upstream earnings, downstream earnings, corporate earnings and income for the period. An accessible version is available at the summary of results link left of this image.

It was a highly challenging year for the industry, but our integrated business and improved operational performance helped soften the impact of lower energy prices.

Earnings on a current cost of supplies basis attributable to Royal Dutch Shell plc shareholders were $3.8 billion in 2015, compared with $19.0 billion in 2014.

Find out more in the Investors' Handbook:

Summary of results

CEO video comment on 2015 results

Who are our people?

Circle chart showing employees by geographical area. Bar chart showing gender diversity data. An accessible version is available at the our people link left of this image.

We recruit, train and recompense people according to a strategy that aims to maintain a productive organisation, deploying talent across the business effectively; accelerating development of our people; growing and strengthening our leadership capabilities; and enhancing employee performance through strong engagement.

Find out more in the Annual Report and Form 20-F:

Our people

Sustainability in activities?

When we plan or develop new activities, or make changes to existing ones, we apply a staged project development process and seek to be consistent around the world.

Action per project development stage	Identify and assess	Select	Define	Execute	Operate	Decommission and restore
Identify people who may be interested in or affected by the project.	X	X	X	X	X	X
Engage with stakeholders (e.g. communities, host governments and NGOs) and feed responses into our risk analyses and decision making process.	X	X	X	X	X	X
Conduct baseline studies of the local environment (e.g. water, biodiversity, social livelihoods) and consider how the project may affect it.	X	X
Based on assessment of potential impacts and stakeholder engagement, identify mitigation and enhancement measures, e.g. change a pipeline route or reduce water used.		X	X	X
Implement mitigation plan through project development and construction and then in ongoing operations.				X	X	X

Find out more in the Sustainability Report:

Embedding sustainability into projects

Role in the energy transition?

We believe that our capacity to innovate and to take a long-term view on investment, along with our experience, can help us to make an important contribution to the energy transition.

Icons representing natural gas, carbon capture and storage, biofuels, hydrogen, seismic surveying and carbon pricing

Bringing lower-carbon natural gas to a wider market
Investment in lower-carbon technologies such as hydrogen and wind
Industry leader in carbon capture and storage
Continued investment in oil and gas to meet growing demand
A biofuels business
Advocating government-led carbon-pricing mechanisms

Find out more in the Sustainability Report:

The energy future

Addressing climate change

How do we work with others?

Many of our operations are located close to communities. We work with communities to understand their priorities and concerns. This is essential to our being a responsible company.