Shell Middle East

Indeed, Shell Middle East is involved in the production of 1.3 million barrels of oil per day, and trades a further 2.2 million barrels a day. This makes Shell the largest private oil and gas producer outside the USA, and one of the biggest foreign investors in the Middle East.

Shell's first bulk tanker passed through the Suez Canal on August 24, 1892, and the company has successfully managed the transition from the days of empires to national sovereignty. Today the challenge is to expand from oil into gas production.

On his recent visit to Dubai, Shell vice-chairman Jeroen van der Veer chose to highlight developments in the four countries where the group has been producing oil for the longest.

'In Oman, where we first began operations in 1954, we have worked with the Omani Government to deliver production of over 800,000 barrels per day through our joint venture Petroleum Development Oman, in which Shell has a 34 per cent shareholding. We are proud that PDO has now achieved a level of over 90 per cent Omanisation.'

Mr. Van der Veer says that Oman's oil fields have faced some challenges recently, and moved into decline. But PDO is committed to pushing technology to the limit to raise production and maximise recoverable resources.

The Anglo-Dutch oil giant is also a 30 per cent shareholder in Oman LNG, which has just let the contract for the construction of its third LNG train. Oman LNG expects to rapidly increase output over the next decade and significantly add to the national income of the sultanate.

Shell has been active in Egypt since 1911, and is one of the largest producers of gas for the domestic market. The group is also developing a local natural gas distribution network, and exploring for gas in deep waters in the Mediterranean off the Egyptian coast which it hopes will be part of a gas export business.

Meanwhile, in Syria Shell is producing 300,000 barrels of oil a day with its local partner. And over in the Gulf Shell is a partner in ADCO and Gasco with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

'Increasingly the name of the game is gas,' says Mr. Van der Veer. 'New technology my allow Shell to take part in gas-to-liquids developments in Qatar and Iran. Both countries have enormous potential, and I would particularly like to see those developments move ahead rapidly'.

The Shell vice-chairman also used his visit to Dubai to declare publicly that the $25 billion Saudi Gas Initiative, a huge gas development project in which Shell is a key player, 'is not dead'. He remained optimistic that this complicated project would soon see the light of day.

Likewise, Shell remains committed to developments in Kuwait which have been 'slow to mature', he added.

'We are also active in Jordan, Yemen, and of course Iran,' he concluded. 'Increasingly, we see links between the energy economies of many of the countries in this region. And as these economies grow, gas infrastructure is going to develop throughout the region'.

For as Mr. Van der Veer also remarked, the 20th century was all about oil, and the 21st century belongs to gas, and that is how Shell Middle East is positioning its future strategy.