Divesting responsibly

We continue working to reshape our global portfolio to drive growth and resilience, and carry out due diligence on potential buyers when divesting parts of our business.

In 2018, we successfully completed our three-year $30 billion divestment programme and our efforts to refresh and upgrade our assets will continue.

In 2019, we completed divestments of around $5 billion. See the Shell Annual Report 2019 for details.

We have a well-established, systematic and assured method of assessing risk in divestments. This includes using in-house and external experts, where appropriate, to conduct checks and examine key attributes of potential buyers.

These attributes include their financial strength; operating culture; health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) policies; and approach to ethics and compliance. We also consider risk and people management processes and standards; community liaison practices; and social investment programmes.

Applicable attributes are assessed against Shell’s policies, as well as the likely requirements of relevant laws and regulations.

Divestments are often subject to the approval of regulatory authorities, which includes potential buyers’ HSSE capacity and capability.