Question

Determine the influence of Marcus Samuel on the Oil industry, with supporting examples.

Answer 1

In the 1880s Marcus junior & Samuel became particularly interested in the oil exporting industry but shipping still posed a problem as oil was transported in barrels that could leak & needed a lot of space. To solve this, they commissioned a fleet of steamers to transport oil in bulk, such as the Murex which, in 1892, became the 1^st oil tanker to pass thru the Suez Canal.

With the 1^st trip of the Murex, the Samuels brothers had obtained a revolution in the transportation of oil. Bulk transport considerably cut the cost of oil by enormously augmenting the volume which could be carried. The brothers’ chief competitor then was Standard Oil, a firm popular for its blue cans of kerosene which, when empty, could be utilized for anything from construction to bed pans. To stand out they launched the Shell brand & painted their cans red. This tactic worked &, by 1896, their kerosene trade was getting more than all their other competitors combined.

The merger with Royal Dutch ushered in a phase of rapid expansion as Shell opened operations across Europe & in several parts of Asia. There was also considerable exploration & production in Romania, Russia ,Venezuela & the US.

The years which followed also gave Shell several exciting prospects to demonstrate the quality of its items in the rapidly developing marketplace for gasoline. These comprised record-breaking races, flights & trips of exploration

The inter-war period was a time of fast expansion for oil firms as the utilization of motor cars & demand for gasoline increased. Shell fuelled the 1^st trans-Atlantic flight made by Brown in 1919, developed improved drilling methods &, in 1929, instituted Shell Chemicals .