More than an century and a half ago, in 1833 an english merchant Marcus Samuel Sr. decided to expand his London business. He sold antiques, but now added oriental shells to his shelves. He aimed to capitalise on a fashion of using the shells in interior design. And he was definately right – the demand for the seashelves rose so high that Samuel quickly began importing shells from the Far East, laying the foundations for his import/export business.

In 1886, with the invention of the internal combustions engines, gasoline demand began to rocket. At this time theSamuel business had passed to Marcus Samuel and his younger brother Sam. They export of British machinery, textiles and tools for the newly industrialising Japan and the Far East and on the return imported rice, silk, copperware, China and the Middle East and Europe. This was the time when During their trip to Japan Marcus started to take interest into importing oil from Baku. Marcus and Sam commissioned a fleet of steamers to carry oil in bulk, using for the first time the Suez Canal. Innitially they named their company The Tank Syndicate, but afterwards retitled it to Shell Transport and Trading Company. in 1903, the company started using the Pecten as a logo.

In 1907, the business success was crowned with the merger into Royal Dutch Shell Group. The newly created group soon spread all over the world. The group began investing huge resources into marketing. The same year Prince Borghese won the Peking to Paris motor rally on Shell motor spirit, giving another good push to the company and brand development.

Nowadays the Company and its red & yellow logo are the best known in oil industry of the world. The company is presented in more than 90 countries and employees mote than 93000 people.

The term “Shell Lubricants” refers to a companies inside the Shell Group, engaged in developing and selling lubricants for use in a range of applications, from consumer motoring to mining and power generation to commercial transport.

Shell’s a producer of premium quality lubricants and its portfolio of lubricant brands includes Shell Helix – for car engines, Shell Tellus – for hydraulic systems, Shell Rimula – heavy duty diesel engine oils. (Penzoil ® and Quaker State ® are also part of Shell’s portfolio, but they are produced exclusively for US market and their export outside the Country is banned by Shell itself). 

Shell Lubricants (“Shell”) has topped the list of the world’s leading lubricants suppliers for the fifth year running, according to new research into the global lubricants market performed by Kline & Company, an international research organization. The research,  gives Shell  13,5%  market share by volume in 2010 and a two per cent lead over its nearest competitor. Shell has leading lubricants research centres in Germany, Japan (joint venture with Showa Shell), UK, and USA.