Shell has reaffirmed its commitment to safe operations across its businesses in Nigeria, urging contractors to make safety a non-negotiable priority as the company advances major projects and operations to support the country’s growing energy needs.
The commitment was reinforced on Tuesday in Lagos at the annual Shell Leadership and Contractor CEO Conference, which brought together chief executives of contracting companies under the theme, “Learn. Adapt. Improve.”
The conference focused on strengthening collaboration between Shell and its contractor partners around people, performance and safety.
Speaking at the event, Shell Executive Vice President and Country Chair, Nigeria, Elohor Aiboni, said the scale and complexity of the company’s operations must never come at the expense of safety.
“Shell is delivering an extensive portfolio of projects and operations that will help meet Nigeria’s growing energy needs, create value for our stakeholders, and support national development. We are advancing major opportunities, executing complex work, and pursuing ambitious goals.
“But no matter how significant the opportunity, no matter how important the project, our success will always be measured first by how safely we deliver it. That is why this conference matters,” she said.
The conference provided a platform for participants to share operational experiences, discuss lessons learned and identify opportunities to strengthen safety performance across Shell’s operations and contractor ecosystem.
It also featured an exhibition, alongside awards and recognition for contractors that demonstrated outstanding safety performance.
A major highlight of the event was the signing of the Leadership Charter, jointly developed in 2025 by Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo) and its contractor partners.
Speaking ahead of the signing, SNEPCo Managing Director, Ronald Adams, said the Charter provided a practical framework for translating the conference theme into everyday leadership and operational practices.
“This year’s conference theme, Learn. Adapt. Improve, connects strongly with the purpose of the Charter,” Adams said. “To learn, we must be honest about what has worked, what has been difficult, and what our people and operations are telling us. To adapt, we must be willing to adjust our approach where the realities of work require us to do better.
“To improve, we must make sure that the commitments in the Charter are not only discussed during conferences, but embedded into how we lead, how we engage, how we review performance, and how we support safe execution every day.”
Aiboni further underscored the human dimension of Shell’s safety commitment, stressing that every worker, whether directly employed by Shell or engaged through its contractors, has the right to return home safely.
“Every person who works for Shell or on behalf of Shell deserves to return home safely to their family, every day, without exception,” she said.
The conference reinforced the shared responsibility of Shell and its contractor partners to continuously learn from experience, adapt to operational realities and improve safety practices, with the Leadership Charter serving as a renewed commitment to embedding these principles across their businesses.