Shell BP

Introduction  Both companies have global goals to be more energy efficient,

who will reach the goal faster and better?

 Founding member of ‘End  Support ‘Publish what you

Plastic Waste’ pay’ campaign
Actions in the  1965-2019 produced 31.95  1965-2019 produced 34.02
past billion tons of CO2 billion tons of CO2
emissions emissions

 Senior executives must  Growth in carbon

Corporate complete an ethical emissions slowed
Social leadership program  Deepwater Horizon oil
Responsibilit  Suited for water pollution in spill in 2010
y Nigeria  11 people died in that
 Clean up an oil spill (in catastrophe
Bondo)

 Helping design the world’s

Innovation/ first vessel to transport  Help countries and large
Future liquefied hydrogen companies decarbonize
strategies  0 gas emissions by 2050  50% cut in the carbon
 Provide reliable electricity. intensity of products
Supply to people in Africa  Net-zero company by 2050
and Asia by 2030  Investment in AI

Evaluation Shell more conscient in the past. Both Corporate Social Responsible and
Shell has very good approaches of CSR. BP and Shell a lot of
competition and big future plans.

Both very competitive, have same goals, different strategies and plans.
Conclusion

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 A critical evaluation of the future that Shell and BP offer

‘Royal Dutch Shell’, best known as Shell, and ‘Beyond Petroleum’, referred to

as BP, are two of the largest and most recognizable gas companies in the

world, who have been competing for many years. Nowadays, the biggest

competition is who will be more energy efficient first and who will achieve this

goal in the best way. Therefore, it would be interesting to research how these

two rivals plan to accomplish this objective, plus, taking into account today’s

world situation, which one is more responsible and ethical. This essay aims to

compare and contrast the past, present and future that these two rivals have,

involving past achievements, regarding the current corporate social

responsibility, and innovations and changes that these can provide in the time

ahead.

Firstly, in relation to the past actions, according to Taylor and Watts (The

Guardian, 2019), both BP and Shell are among the top 20 firms that have

contributed to 35% of all CO2 and methane related to global energy. From

1965 to 2017, the levels of CO2 produced by the companies are similar, BP

with a higher production with 34.02 billions of tons and Shell with a slight

difference by 31.95 billion of tons. This information shows that Shell might

have taken actions before than BP to reduce the levels of carbon dioxide

production and it have worked, having an advantage over the other company.

The pair, Shell and BP, have started to participate in campaigns to make a

change, as explained in the company’s report (2019a), Shell is a founding

member of ‘End Plastic Waste’ an alliance of companies that plan to invest

$1.5 billion USD in advancing solutions for the environmental removal of

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plastic waste. This will not only help the planet, but it would also help the

marketing of the company, a significant step for Shell. On the other hand, BP

supports ‘Publish What You Pay’ campaign for a more transparent and

accountable extractive industry (PWYP, no date). This campaign might also

be used as a marketing campaign, although it is believed that one of the

world’s most serious problems nowadays is the plastic in the ocean, in which

Shell is contributing to solve it. Based on this information, it is noticed that

Shell started taking actions faster than BP and this might affect on future

strategies.

Secondly, it is the Corporate Social Responsibility, that has the goal to

combine economic progress, social justice and environmental preservation.

This is essential on the business sector nowadays, both Shell and BP have a

series of ethical rules to be socially responsible. According to the company’s

report (2019b), all senior executives at Shell must complete an ethical

leadership program, to reinforce the level of commitment to ethics and with

this have better results and treatment towards employees. Nevertheless,

Shell had an oil spill in Bondo, Nigeria, which they are cleaning up, although

the company was sued by a 40,000 people community in Nigeria in 2015 for

an oil spill that left the community environmentally devastated and claimed

that the oil spills will not be cleaned up properly (Vaughan, 2017). This leaves

an ethical problem within Shell and a bad mark on their reputation. At the

same time, on the report of BP (no date a), the growth of carbon emissions

slowed, which means a progress to reach the goal. Despite this, BP has had

a hard history of events such as the ‘Deepwater Horizon oil spill’ in 2010.

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According to Boyle (2020) and Helmore (2020), this catastrophe not only

killed 11 workers and is still affecting the marine life in that zone, but triggered

‘one of the worst environmental disasters in US history’. Both Shell and BP

have had accidents and oil spills in the past and both have tried to solve them

and take responsibility for it, although BP’s disaster left enormous irreversible

damage.

Lastly, looking at the future, both companies offer the same one, to be a net-

zero company by 2050 However, this plan can be different in each company

depending on their way of innovation and strategies. Regarding Shell’s

sustainability report (2019c), this company is helping design the world’s first

vessel to transport liquefied oxygen, which would be a big step for humanity.

Apart from this, they aim to provide 100 million people in Africa and Asia with

secure electricity supplies. On BP’s insight of digital innovation (2020), it was

mentioned that the company had invested in the development of AI (Artificial

Intelligence), to help understand the underwater environment and that way

prevent catastrophes. Furthermore, by 2030 they aspire to lower the

emissions from operations by 30-35%, cut the carbon intensity of products by

50% and start helping countries and large companies decarbonize, all these

with the aim of becoming a 0-gas emissions company in the future. Both BP

and Shell have the same goal by 2050 to be a net-zero company, yet each

company has different projects that aim to develop.

On account of these criteria, it is noticed that Shell might have been more

aware in the past and started taking actions first in respect of the carbon

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footprint, giving the company an advantage from an earlier time which is still

visible. Regarding the Corporate Social Responsibility, both companies meet

the requirements and are corporate socially responsible, although Shell has a

better history and a good approach to continue growing in this area.

Respecting the future, it is unknown but according to the plans and strategies

detailed above, Shell is more focused on efficient energy and electricity, while

BP focuses on reducing emissions. Both BP and Shell have a big unique

project and they seem prepared and have impressive plans for the world.

In conclusion, it is noticeable that Shell and BP will always remain competitive

and both will keep being two of the world’s largest gas companies. Their goal

is the same, make the world a better place by contributing to the environment

and society, even though the way of achieving it is different. While Shell has a

competitive edge over BP and the present and future energy plans are bigger,

BP does not fall behind in the competition and will keep improving.

Word count: 1023 words

Reference list:

Boyle, L. (2020). ‘Deepwater Horizon oil spill still affecting fish in Gulf a
decade later’, The Independent, 15 April. Available at:
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-gulf-
mexico-fish-pollution-a9466761.html (Accessed: 19 October 2020)

BP (no date). ‘Digital innovation’. Available at:

https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/what-we-do/technology-at-bp/digital-
innovation.html (Accessed: 20 October 2020)

BP (no date). ‘Our ambition’. Available at:

https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/who-we-are/our-ambition.html
(Accessed: 20 October 2020)

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BP (no date). ‘Our strategy’. Available at:
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(Accessed: 20 October 2020)

BP (no date a). ‘Statistical Review of World Energy’. Available at:

https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-
of-world-energy.html (Accessed: 18 October 2020)

Helmore, E. (2020). ‘Deepwater Horizon disaster had much worse impact

than believed, study finds’, The Guardian, 13 February. Available at:
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Shell (2019a). ‘New global alliance commits over $1.0 billion USD to help end
plastic waste in the environment; sets goal of investing $1.5. billion USD’.
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Shell (2019b). Sustainability report ‘Living by our principles’. Available at:

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2020)

Shell (2019c). Sustainability report ‘Sustainability at Shell’. Available at:

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to-sustainability/sustainability-at-shell.html (Accessed: 20 October 2020)

Shell (no date). ‘Our major projects’. Available at:

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Vaughan, A. (2017). ‘Nigerian oil pollution claims against Shell cannot be

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