SWOT analysis of Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell is a company that sells oil & natural gas which is headquartered in the Netherlands. With key interests in oil and natural gas exploration, the company supplies crude oil and natural gas worldwide. The company manufactures and distributes oil and gasoline in the Integrated Gas, Upstream, and Downstream segments and it also has operations in the extraction of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids.

The company also has investments in liquefaction of gas; conversion of natural gas to liquids and manufacturing and marketing of fuels, oil, natural gas, and petrochemical products; logistics of oil and gas; and extraction of bitumen from mined oil sands and manufacturing of synthetic crude oil.

The company also sells gasoline, diesel, heating oil, aviation fuel, marine fuel, liquefied natural gas (LNG) for transport, lubricants, bitumen, and sulfur; and manufactures and sells petrochemicals for industrial customers, also.

Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Royal Dutch Shell

The following are the strengths of Petronas :

• Total presence in all aspects of oil & gas: Royal Dutch Shell has a comprehensive portfolio that covers all aspects of the oil & gas sector including integrates gasoline, upstream and downstream segments. The company also has investments in liquefaction of gas; conversion of natural gas to liquids and manufacturing and marketing of fuels, oil, natural gas, and petrochemical products; logistics of oil and gas; and extraction of bitumen from mined oil sands and manufacturing of synthetic crude oil.
• Business strategy: Shell, as Royal Dutch Shell is popularly known, is a key player in the domain of oil & gas. Their strategy has been to improve the company’s strategic position by looking at market leadership in oil, natural gas, and low carbon energy by focusing on the future prospects and sustainability.
• Ability to change: The company started off by selling shells and then it moved into trading in rice, silk, and machinery. Their first move into oil and gas started off with kerosene, following which they moved into oil, natural gas, and then petrochemicals. If you scrutinize the history of the brand the propensity to change as well as adapt to them has been one of their biggest strengths.
• Core values: The core values of the business include honesty, integrity, and respect for people. Each strategy of the company, the code of ethics, the working norms, and guidelines across the organization are in total compliance with these core values which is one key success factor of Shell.
• Strong customer relationships: Shell caters to both motorists and business customers. For motorists, they have a number of schemes such as loyalty cards, as well as shell credit cards value-added services at their gas stations and a number of freebies for frequent customers. The business customers are also treated with a lot of respect and their energy needs are identified wherein Shell ensures that they satisfy all these various needs thereby becoming the sole energy partner of their business customers.

Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Royal Dutch Shell

Weaknesses are used to refer to areas where the business or the brand needs improvement.   Some of the key weaknesses of Shell are:

• Sustainability challenges: Quite like most of their major competitors Shell is also trying to develop sustainable solutions for satisfying the energy needs of their customers. Oil & gas companies like Shell look at technology solutions which look at recovering more than 30 % of their energy resources for sustaining in the future. These are very costly options and this is eating into the revenues of the business.
• Slashing of resources: Shell has been subject to slashing its oil reserves twice at a stretch. The first was when the reserves in Nigeria were lost when it slashed its reserves by 3.9bn barrels, which constituted one-fifth of its total holdings. The next was the one in Ormen Lange gas field in Norway which had stocks at around 150m barrels.
• Ethical Issues: Shell has faced the brunt in a number of ethical conflicts such as spillage for which the company refused to take responsibility, price wars that it regularly wages with competition and charges of discriminatory pricing by customers.

Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Royal Dutch Shell

Some of the opportunities include:

• Alternative energy: The company has a number of plans for the alternative energy options and the company will take all necessary steps to move into alternative energy options which will be the future. The company also has made investments in future sustainable transportation systems, smart cities, and green fuels.

Threats in the SWOT analysis of Royal Dutch Shell

Some of the threats include:

• Competition: The main competitors of Shell as Petronas, British Petroleum, & Chevron.