ROYAL DUTCH OIL COMPANY. The Company was established in 1890 at The Hague (Netherlands) with a share capital of 1,300,00o guilders. Though the first years were diffi cult ones for the Royal Dutch Company it succeeded in keeping its footing, managed by Mr. J. B. Aug. Kessler who in December 1900 died, and was succeeded by Mr. H. W. A. Deterding, since 1920 Sir Henri W. A. Deterding, who managed the Company until his retirement in 1937.
With the new oil companies set up in the Netherlands Indies the Royal Dutch established relations.
In 1903 a selling company, the Asiatic Petroleum Company, was formed by the Royal Dutch and the companies with whom they had contracted, also in conjunction with the Moeara Enim, the Moesi Ilir, and the Nederlandsche Industrie and Handel Maat schappij, in co-operation with the Shell Transport and Trading Company, the Dordtsche Petroleum Maatschappij, and the princi pal Russian producers-exporters headed by the Soc. Comm. et Ind. de Naphte Caspienne et de la Mer Noire.
In 1907 an amalgamation was effected with the Shell Transport and Trading Company. Two new companies were formed, a Dutch
one, De Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij, The Hague, for the winning and refining of oil and preparation of its products, and an English Company, The Anglo Saxon Petroleum Company, London, to attend to transport and storage. The "Royal Dutch" and "Shell" still retained their separate existence, but the possessions of both companies were combined under the two newly formed companies. The Royal Dutch and Shell shares in these concerns were 6o% and 4o% respectively.
The expansion of the Royal Dutch-Shell group was no longer confined to the Indies but it gradually succeeded in acquiring interests in nearly all producing centres of the world.
The crude oil production of the Royal Dutch-Shell group in 1928 amounted to 22,108,972 metric tons. (J. E. F. DE K.)