MonteShell S.p.A. was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

active in the oil sector, jointly controlled by Servizi ELettrici Montedison - SELM S.p.A. and Shell Italia S.p.A. In particular, it dealt with the

refining Refining is the process of purification of a (1) substance or a (2) form. The term is usually used of a natural resource that is almost in a usable form, but which is more useful in its pure form. For instance, most types of natural petroleum w ...

, transport and distribution of automotive fuel.

History

At the beginning of the 1960s, Montecatini and

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

had already joined forces in MonteShell Petrolchimica, owner of a plant in the chemical hub of

Ferrara Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main ...

and an industrial site in

Brindisi Brindisi ( ; ) is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Historically, the city has played an essential role in trade and culture due to its strategic position ...

. Towards the end of the decade, Montedison purchased Shell's share and merged the petrochemical sector into Montesud. Subsequently, in 1973, Shell abandoned Italy by selling its plants to

Eni Eni is an Italian oil and gas corporation. Eni or ENI may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Escuela Nacional de Inteligencia, the Argentine intelligence academy * Groupe des écoles nationales d’ingénieurs (Groupe ENI), a French engi ...

. In 1987 SELM, of the Montedison group, acquired the Italian network of Total, which had been losing money for years, for around 240 billion lire. The reason for the operation is dictated by the need to open a new distribution channel following the opening of crude oil production in the

Sicily Channel Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, with the opening of the Vega platform; specifically, SELM's subsidiary, Valmont, bought 100% of Total Sipa and the 2,566 owned plants which were added to the 400 held by SELM, coming to hold 7.3% of the national market, the fourth Italian player. Also included in the Total package was the ex Aquila refinery, useful for the vertical integration of activities. A few months later the creation of MonteShell was announced, a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between SELM and Shell Italia, created to compete in the distribution of

fuels A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...

lubricants A lubricant (sometimes shortened to lube) is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces ...

, LPG and

bitumen Bitumen ( , ) is an immensely viscosity, viscous constituent of petroleum. Depending on its exact composition, it can be a sticky, black liquid or an apparently solid mass that behaves as a liquid over very large time scales. In American Engl ...

: SELM puts its know-how in extraction and

, while Shell in

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

. Added to the 3,000 SELM stations are the 120 Shell refueling points (acquired a few years earlier from

Conoco Conoco ( ), formerly known as Continental Oil, is an American Petroleum industry, petroleum brand that is operating under the current ownership of the Phillips 66 Company since 2012 and is headquartered in the Westchase, Houston, Westchase neigh ...

), in addition to the ROL refinery sold by Montedison. In 1993 the company achieved the best

balance sheet In financial accounting, a balance sheet (also known as statement of financial position or statement of financial condition) is a summary of the financial balances of an individual or organization, whether it be a sole proprietorship, a business ...

in its history, with 3,801 billion in turnover,

EBITDA A company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (commonly abbreviated EBITDA, pronounced ) is a measure of a company's profitability of the operating business only, thus before any effects of indebtedness, state-mandat ...

of 107.4 billion and a

profit Profit may refer to: Business and law * Profit (accounting), the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market * Profit (economics), normal profit and economic profit * Profit (real property), a nonpossessory inter ...

of 5.2 billion. The network drops to 2,154 plants and MonteShell is in fourth place among operators, after

Agip Agip S.p.A., acronym for Azienda generale italiana petroli, was an Italian automotive gasoline, Diesel fuel, diesel, Liquefied petroleum gas, LPG, lubricants, fuel oil, and bitumen retailer established in 1926 and Subsidiary company, subsidiary ...

/ IP,

Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (from the phon ...

and Q8. With the arrival of 1995, we witnessed the end of MonteShell. Edison, the new guise of SELM, sells 50% of the company to Shell, grossing 238 billion lire. The collaboration between the two partners will continue for a few more years, but only for LPG and bitumen activities.

History

References

See also