Technology

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Technology is a key element of our strategy. In 2008 we increased our R&D spending to $1,266 million and invested in several demonstration projects and field trials. This investment secures the long-term development and delivery of technology to our operating companies and capital projects. We focus on technologies that will:

• improve our ability to find, develop, recover and process greater volumes of oil and gas at lower cost;
• improve the efficiency of converting oil, gas and, more recently, biomass into products with cost and performance benefits;
• reduce the environmental impact of our operations and products with a focus on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
  

We actively pursue partnerships to help accelerate the research, development and deployment of new technologies. We also retain ownership of many breakthrough technologies for sole use in Shell projects or for licensing to others. Shell has more than 30,000 issued and pending patent assets in more than 100 countries.

We have built up the technology capabilities in the company through a network of global technology centres with a technical community of nearly 30,000 people of which around 10% are directly involved in R&D and demonstration projects.