Nigeria’s premier deep-water development, Bonga, operated by Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo) has won the Asset of the Year award in the Shell Group for 2023, the latest recognition of its best-in-class performance in Safety, Environment and Asset Management.

Bonga had won same award in 2016 and was first runner up in the same category in 2019 for improved production, maintenance, problem-resolving capability, operational excellence and cost ownership.

The asset won again this year beating targets in oil production, plant availability, and greenhouse gas emissions. The asset also recorded zero fatalities and spills.
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“This is a testament to a culture of excellence which has endured at Bonga since first oil in 2005,” SNEPCo Managing Director Elohor Aiboni said of the award,according to a statement on Wednesday.

She added:“We appreciate the hard work of staff and contractors as well as the support of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and our co-venturers – TotalEnergiesNigeria Limited, Nigerian Agip Exploration and Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited which has enabled Bonga to continue to safely and efficiently deliver value to stakeholders.”

Among other factors, SNEPCo has relied on a motivated workforce, cutting-edge technology and a relentless drive on safety to deliver oil and gas at record levels at Bonga. Last year, the Floating, Production, Storage, Offloading (FPSO) vessel, which is at the heart of the operations, achieved the one billionth barrel of crude oil export. Overall, Bonga produced 138,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2023 compared to around 101,000 in 2022.

The latest award for Bonga adds to a lengthy list of laurels won by Shell in Nigeria in the past few years. In 2022 alone, Shell Companies in Nigeria were recognised as Best International Company of the Year (Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria), Upstream Company of the Year (Nigeria International Energy Summit) and Leading Tax Compliant Firm in Nigeria (Federal Inland Revenue Service.)

Shell Plc is preparing to cut staff from its offshore wind business as Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan moves the company away from the capital-intensive renewable energy sector.

The British oil major is set to begin the layoffs within months, mainly in Europe, according to people familiar with the matter who requested not to be identified because the information is private.

“We are concentrating on select markets and segments to deliver the most value for our investors and customers,” a Shell spokesperson said. “Shell is looking how it can continue to compete for offshore wind projects in priority markets while maintaining our focus on performance, discipline and simplification.”

Shell had been spending heavily in offshore wind, aiming to leverage its experience extracting oil and gas at sea to become a leader in the technology. But soaring costs in the sector and a renewed focus on driving returns for shareholders under Sawan has led the company to back away from the green-energy source.

Since Sawan took on the CEO role at the beginning of last year, he’s put pressure on business divisions to improve performance and profitability. In June 2023, he laid out a plan to reduce “structural costs” by as much as $3 billion by the end of 2025. The cuts to offshore wind follow layoffs that started in the low-carbon solutions unit earlier this year.

Shell has built up a team, focused in the Netherlands to develop and build offshore wind farms. But the company limits on spending left a large team with less to do than previously expected.

The staff cuts follow departures of a number of key executives in the offshore wind business, including Thomas Brostrom, the head of its European renewable power division and Melissa Read, the head of its UK offshore wind unit.