Matthias Bichsel, Director Projects & Technology, Shell, Alphonsus Stoelinga, Dutch Ambassador, Murugesh Nirani, Minister, Large & Medium Scale Industries, Govt of Karnataka, S V Ranganath, Chief Secretary to the Government of Karnataka, Dr Yasmine Hilton, Chairman-Shell Group of Companies in India.
BANGALORE, INDIA: Shell will build a new technology and innovation centre in Bangalore, the company announced recently. The Shell Technology Centre Bangalore (STCB) is one of the three global hubs for technology, after Houston and Amsterdam, in the projects & technology business of Royal Dutch Shell.
The new centre will be spread over 40 acre at Devanahalli near Bangalore. This also marks the next step in the company’s expansion into developing technology in Asia. By the end of 2010, STCB employed around 700 professionals and has plans to grow to about 1500 in the near future. The new centre will be operational by 2015.
“This technology centre is a first for Shell, not just in India, but in Asia and Oceania. Shell’s business model in India has proved to be robust. It is more than just selling products to India, it’s about engaging the hearts and minds of India people,” said Yasmine Hilton, Chairman, Shell Companies in India.
She said Shell’s decision to strengthen R&D in India has been greatly influenced by the quality of talent and work that it has experienced in India.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that energy use could grow by more than half over the next quarter century and double by 2050. A large portion of this growth looks set to come from Asian countries, in particular China and India. Key to achieving Shell goals to meet the world’s future energy needs is technology.
STCB has become home to a wide spectrum of technical disciplines. It develops niche areas of technical work in fields like coal bed methane, bitumen R&D and technical services, subsurface modeling, polyol technical services, distillation and light ends research, enhanced computational research, water technology, a project design office etc.
Bangalore is also doing a lot of niche work on some world class projects like Majnoon, Iraq South Gas, Upstream gas and LNG development projects in Australia and cutting-edge FLNG applications among others. Part of its programme provides downstream R&D as well as working with the latest upstream technologies and processes. Currently located in a leased facility at Bangalore, the company will move into its new custom-built, 40 acre campus by 2015.
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