Royal Dutch Shell activity in China in the 1950s-1990s

Abstract

At the turn of the 19th and 20th century Chinese market was attractive to Western merchants. The Anglo-Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell used demand from local consumers to sell fuel and test development mechanisms under permanent political instability and economic turbulence. The practices gained over the previous years helped the company quickly restore work in the region after the end of the Second World War and integrate into the economic system of Hong Kong which was undergoing major changes in the 1950s—1980s. Forced out of China, Royal Dutch Shell had become one of the key players in the fuel market of the British colony, using it as a platform for improving the mechanisms of business in a period of dynamic economic development and a solid foundation for working in the Asian region. At the turn of the 1970s—1980s the Anglo-Dutch group began to restore its positions in the PRC which were lost in the middle of the XX century by consistently gaining a foothold in the promising market that had a serious resource base and increased demand for products of fuel and energy complex. The conditions created by the Chinese authorities allowed Royal Dutch Shell to establish and develop multichannel cooperation with local companies in exploration and production, transportation and storage, as well as processing and sale of fuel resources. The Chinese side acted as a recipient of technology, management practices and investments provided by Royal Dutch Shell. The variety of joint projects and the diverse nature of the interaction between Royal Dutch Shell and Chinese companies in the last third of the XX century became the basis for the bilateral economic relations development at the beginning of the XXI century.