The move will change around 100 years of corporate tradition which has seen Royal Dutch controlling 60% of the oil company with Shell Transport and Trading in Britain controlling the remaining 40%.

Currently the companies are separately listed on the London and Amsterdam stock exchanges, although a full merger of the two entities following the board amalgamation has been suggested as one of several options to improve the company’s international standing. Any decisions will be left until next year’s annual general meeting and could take up to five years to fully implement.

The company has begun to fall off the pace in the core business of exploration and production, which led to Shell wrongly booking more than 20% of its reserves with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.