Royal Dutch Shell is making a strategic push into the electricity sector and expects to be supplying power to industrial customers next year

Royal Dutch Shell is to launch as an electricity supplier in Britain, challenging some of Europe’s biggest utilities.

The oil major has applied for a licence to supply power to businesses across Britain and plans to start signing up industrial customers now to provide them with electricity early next year.

Shell also will establish a significant business at a stroke by taking over power supply to all 600 sites that it owns in the UK, comprising about 550 petrol stations as well as its offices, terminals and oil and gas platforms.

The move forms part of a strategic push into the electricity sector by the Anglo-Dutch company as it adapts to rising global demand for clean energy.

Ben van Beurden, chief executive, said last month