London — While the world braces for the electric-vehicle revolution, Royal Dutch Shell is betting on growing appetite for asphalt and plastics to sustain its century-old oil refining business for the coming decades. Converting crude oil into products ranging from gasoline to industrial chemicals has long faced obstacles due to volatile profits, high costs, safety issues and pollution and more recently, forecasts of peaking demand for oil. But refining, together with trading, marketing and chemicals — known together as downstream — has proved its importance during the oil industry’s downturn since 2014, providing the bulk of Shell’s profits as the price of crude collapsed. Shell has in recent years transformed its downstream business by selling some plants and upgrading others to have them better resist oil price fluctuations and shifts in demand, delivering double-digit returns on capital employed. "Refining will continue to be part of our portfolio for decades to come," said Shell’...
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