Shell Australia

Shell's involvement in Australia began in 1901 when bulk fuel handling facilities commissioned by the 'Shell' Transport and Trading Company of London at Gore Bay, Sydney and on leased land in Melbourne, near Williamstown railway station. The arrival of the ship Turbo on 3 June was the first ever delivery of bulk kerosene to Australia. In 1905, the Shell Transport and Trading Company and the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company established the British Imperial Oil Company in Australia as a joint venture. In 1916, Shell began bulk delivery to garages equipped with pumps. In 1926 it acquired the Neptune Oil Company; a year later the British Imperial Oil Company was renamed the Shell Company of Australia, and in 1928 it purchased the Clyde Refinery in Sydney. alongside five other investors: BP, BHP Billiton Petroleum, Chevron, Mitsubishi/Mitsui and Woodside. ==Sale of downstream business==

In August 2014, Shell sold its Australian refinery in Geelong and petrol stations for A$2.9 billion (US$2.6 billion) to Vitol, a Geneva based company. Vitol operates these assets as Viva Energy, which maintains Shell branding on its service stations under a brand licence arrangement. ==Projects==

Prelude In May 2011, Royal Dutch Shell finalised its investment for the world's first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility. Shell had explored the concept of a FLNG in Namibia in the 1990s, but was abandoned due to unfavourable economic conditions. The initiative was relaunched in 2007 following the discovery of the offshore Prelude field located off Australia's north-west coast and was estimated to contain about of natural gas equivalent reserves. The floating vessel to be used for the Prelude field, known as Prelude FLNG, was still being constructed in Geoje, South Korea in mid-June 2014. Promoted as the longest floating structure in the world, the vessel will consist of a processing structure, measuring in height from the deck, that will take in the equivalent of of oil per day in natural gas and cool it into liquefied natural gas for transport and sale in Asia. The hull of the vessel was completed in December 2013 and the Prelude was scheduled to start producing LNG in 2016—analysts estimated the total cost of construction at more than US$12 billion. In December 2018, production started at the facility. The company has a 67.5 percent hold, alongside investors CPC Corporation, Inpex Corporation, and Korea Gas Corporation. Ningaloo In July 2011, the Federal Government gave approval for the company to drill an exploration well to the west of the Ningaloo Marine Park. The drilling operation will occur at depths of around , the deepest ever in Australian waters. Surat In February 2019, Royal Dutch Shell was granted leases for $10 billion (AUS) towards the Surat project, which it will undergo with PetroChina under the joint venture of Arrow Energy. In December 2017, a 27-year deal was agreed in which Arrow would sell output to the company's Queensland Curtis LNG (QCNLG) project. It will use infrastructure from the company's QCLNG project do develop the biggest coal seam gas resource in the country, which is predicted to speed up the process and reduce the environmental impact. ==Sponsorships==

Shell sponsored the Shell Aria, a contest for young Australian operatic singers, held in conjunction with the Australian National Eisteddfod in Canberra from 1955. Shell was the sponsor of Dick Johnson Racing from 1987 until 2004. Having remained as a minor sponsor, it again became title sponsor for the rebranded DJR Team Penske in 2017. It also returned as the official fuel supplier for the series, having been so between 1987 and 2001. ==See also==