Marcus Samuel, considered the father of Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies.

This thinking has not changed despite the turbulence following the Filipinos' bitter struggle against colonial rule-first against the Spaniards and then the Americans and Japanese-the utter devastation caused by World War II and the costly political and economic upheavals that the Philippines has gone through since the bright red cans of kerosene bearing the Shell trademark first arrived in the Philippines. 

And for the Royal Dutch Shell group, the best is yet to come for its operations in the Philippines, considered one of the most notable markets in Asia, where the billion-dollar multinational first established a major presence in the energy sector and where it is pinning its hopes for future growth. 

According to Edgar O. Chua, country chair of Shell Companies in the Philippines, the country is becoming an even more important market due to its rapid economic growth and increasing young population, which augur well for its different businesses in the Philippines that include petroleum refining and distribution and natural gas production. 

The 57-year-old Chua tells BusinessMonday that the Royal Dutch Shell Group has been consciously "rebalancing" its portfolio over the past five years, moving from West to East, because growth for the company will come from this large and developing continent, and Shell has every intention of taking part in that spectacular rise. 

Shell thus is going full circle as the company was born in Asia, a result of a joint venture between a Dutch company that struck oil in Indonesia and a British company that was, among others, into the export of seashells from the East to the West. 

The Philippines stands to benefit greatly from that rebalancing of the group's billion-dollar portfolio with big-ticket projects coming out of the group's pipeline. 

Shell Companies in the Philippines, for example, is investing about P6 billion to put up its first import terminal facility in Northern Mindanao and is looking to upgrade its 110,000-barrel-per-day petroleum refinery in Batangas as it wants to be a "major participant in the country's growth and development." 

Shell and its partners are also investing around $1 billion in the continued expansion of the Malampaya natural gas field off northwest Palawan. It is also studying the feasibility of building a terminal for liquefied natural gas and increasing the manpower complement of its Shared Service Center in Manila by at least another 1,500 employees to total 4,500.

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