Shell and the Great War: Fueling Victory — How Oil Tankers and Supplies Helped Britain in World War I

By John Donovan & ChatGPT

Published 19 Jan 2026

In the industrialised warfare of the early 20th century, oil replaced coal as the decisive strategic resource. When the First World War erupted in 1914, the British Army and Royal Navy faced a profound logistical challenge: powering millions of troops, thousands of vehicles, and hundreds of warships across multiple theatres of war. Into that breach stepped the burgeoning Royal Dutch Shell Group — supplying fuel, shipping capacity and vital logistics at a time when oil was rapidly becoming as crucial to victory as manpower and guns.

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From Global Merchant to Wartime Supplier

Royal Dutch Shell was formed in 1907 through the merger of the British Shell Transport and Trading Company and the Dutch Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, creating one of the world’s first truly global oil enterprises. The group was already investing in modern tanker technology and bulk oil transport before the war: in 1892 the tanker Murex became the first to transit the Suez Canal, allowing oil to be shipped more efficiently to distant markets — an early example of strategic logistics that would matter deeply twenty-plus years later.

By the outbreak of World War I, Shell had a growing fleet of oil tankers and a global production network. Its strategic capacity to move large volumes of petroleum products — refined fuels, lubricants, and other derivatives — made it a natural partner to Allied government planners as oil became indispensable to modern war machinery.

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Main Supplier to the British War Effort

According to historical records, during the First World War Shell became the main supplier of fuel to the British Expeditionary Force — the army deployed overseas to fight on the Western Front — and played a crucial role in keeping the engines of war moving. Shell also served as the sole supplier of aviation fuel at a time when air power was in its infancy but already essential for reconnaissance and combat. It is also recorded that Shell supplied as much as 80 % of the British Army’s TNT raw materials — an extraordinary contribution to munitions production.

Perhaps most symbolically important, Shell volunteered its entire shipping fleet to the British Admiralty — the naval command responsible for protecting sea lanes, maintaining supply chains, and ensuring that Britain’s war machine could be kept fed across oceans (Shell committed all of its shipping).

This was no small gesture. At a time when German U-boats prowled the Atlantic and merchant losses were mounting, ensuring the steady delivery of fuel and materials was as much a contribution to national security as direct combat. The Royal Navy’s transition from coal-burning dreadnoughts to oil-fired ships — a strategy initiated on the eve of the war and intensified during it — required reliable, high-quality oil supplies. Shell’s capacity to deliver helped make that transition possible.

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Strategic Importance of Oil in WWI and Shell’s Role

Oil was not an incidental input in the First World War — it was central to the modernisation of armies and navies. British oil consumption soared as the conflict went on, and by mid-war the importance of secure fuel supplies was widely recognised by military and government planners alike. A detailed academic analysis of British strategic oil policy notes that the driving requirement for reliable oil supplies shaped diplomatic and logistical planning — including tanker construction, fuel stockpiling, and fuel diplomacy — throughout the war.

Shell’s involvement with the British government was part of that broader strategic posture. The company’s production, refining, transport network, and shipping assets were woven into government planning as early as 1912, when Marcus Samuel, the founder of Shell Transport & Trading, gave evidence to the British Royal Commission on Fuel and Engines and emphasised the need for secure diplomatic support and contracts for oil supplies.

In practice, this translated into Shell’s involvement in supplying warships, trucks, aircraft, and artillery units across multiple fronts — a contribution that was at once commercial and patriotic.

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War’s Mixed Fortunes and Post-War Expansion

The war was not without hardship for Shell. The German invasion of Romania in 1916 — a key oil-producing region — destroyed about 17 % of the group’s global production overnight. Meanwhile, internal unrest, revolutions, and shifting alliances complicated operations in Russia and elsewhere.

Nevertheless, the post-war period confirmed Shell’s central position in the global oil industry. The war entrenched oil’s role in modern economies and military strategy, and those patterns persisted into the inter-war era. Shell emerged not only with enhanced reputation but also with expanded markets, refined logistics capabilities, and an integrated global supply chain. By the end of the 1920s, the company was a leading producer, marketer, and transporter of oil products worldwide.

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The Tanker Fleet: Maritime Logistics That Mattered

Shell’s wartime contributions were facilitated by decades of investment in tanker technology. The company’s early commissioning of tanker fleets significantly cut transportation costs and expanded load capacity — a commercial innovation that proved strategically valuable in wartime.

Though the best-known illustrations of Shell’s tanker fleets’ wartime roles often come from the Second World War (when some were converted into Merchant Aircraft Carriers), the foundational experience of operating and managing large tanker fleets was built in the pre-war era. Ships that could carry oil in bulk were a relatively new technology, but they became absolutely vital for war logistics — and Shell was among the pioneers.

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Conclusion: A Worthy Chapter in Industrial Patriotism

While any multinational’s history includes complexities and controversies, Shell’s support for Britain in the First World War stands as a clear instance in which commercial capability and national need aligned. By supplying the British Expeditionary Force’s fuel, providing aviation fuel, donating vast quantities of shipping capacity, and integrating its logistics into wartime planning, Shell played a critical enabling role in the Allied war effort.

In the industrial warfare of 1914–18, when mobility and mechanisation transformed battlefields, Shell’s contribution helped ensure fuel did not become a bottleneck at a time when oil was a strategic lifeline.

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References

• Shell became the main supplier of fuel to the British Expeditionary Force in WWI, was sole supplier of aviation fuel and provided 80 % of the British Army’s TNT, and volunteered all its shipping to the Admiralty.

• Shell’s early commissioning of bulk oil tankers such as the Murex revolutionised oil transport and reduced oil shipment costs long before the war.

• Academic work on British oil strategy in 1914-23 emphasises Britain’s need for secure oil supplies and the strategic integration of tanker logistics into war planning.

• Post-war expansion cemented Shell’s global position, reflecting how the war shaped demand for oil, transport networks, and refinery capacity.

Disclaimer

This article is intended as historical analysis and commentary based on publicly available archival records, published corporate histories, academic research, and reputable secondary sources. It distinguishes between documented facts, historical interpretation, and opinion, and does not assign moral or legal culpability beyond what is supported by cited evidence. References to Shell’s activities during the First World War reflect the strategic and logistical context of the time and do not constitute modern commercial or legal endorsement. This article does not provide professional, legal, or investment advice.

 

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