ALSO IN THIS ISSUE...

My generation
Life offshore: two perspectives.

Fuelling a lower-carbon
future with biofuels
Shell and Cosan: a joint venture to
become a leading producer of ethanol.

Boundless energy
Louise Kingham from the Energy Institute
gives us her point of view.
1

WELCOME
AUTUMN 2011

Dear Readers,
Welcome to the autumn 2011 issue of
Shell World UK.
First of all, I’d like to emphasise that
Shell very much regrets the recent oil spill
in the North Sea. It has been taken very
seriously and we have responded to it.
For a brief update, please see the article
on page 7. I would also encourage anyone
with concerns to check the updates on
www.shell.co.uk.
Europe and the UK are a heartland
for the Shell group and we are a vital part
of the UK economy, producing 14% cent
of the oil and gas from the UK sector and
Shell infrastructure handling 40% of UK
gas supply.
Investment in new production is growing
and several exciting projects have recently
been announced, including our commitment
to redevelop the Schiehallion and Loyal
Fields, West of Shetland, in conjunction
with our co-venturers.
The first stage of decommissioning has
been safely and successfully completed
on the Indefatigable platforms; and we
continue to work with our colleagues in
Projects and Technology on plans for an
innovative CCS project.
There are many interesting projects
across Shell Upstream – the FLNG project
featured on the cover and inside this issue,
for example, is a world first. In this issue,
you can also read about life in the North
Sea through the eyes of two Offshore
Installation Managers.
As always, please contact the editorial
team – details opposite – if you have any
comments or suggestions.
Glen Cayley
VICE PRESIDENT – TECHNICAL UPSTREAM UK
750625–CSL–09/2011
SHELLEY HOPPE
Editor
Shelley.Hoppe@shell.com
+44 (0)20 7934 3100
THIS IS GROUNDBREAKING
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED
SARAH MARSHALL BY SHELL.
Managing Editor
Sarah.Marshall@shell.com
+44 (0)20 7934 2260
To contact the magazine
Shell World UK,
CA-CX, Shell Centre,
London SE1 7NA NEW AND
Email
Shellworlduk@shell.com
IMPROVED
Website address
www.shell.co.uk/shellworlduk If you are a regular reader,
you’ll notice that we’ve given
SUBSCRIPTIONS Shell World UK magazine a bit
Add your details to our distribution list via of a design face-lift. We’ve also
our website at www.shell.co.uk/signup made the magazine physically
or write to us at shellworlduk@shell.com
bigger, as well as switching to a
more environmentally friendly
PRODUCTION
and brighter paper stock (details
This magazine is printed on Greencoat
100 Offset which is made from 100% below left). We think it’s a real
recovered fibre, certified in accordance improvement, easier on the eye
with the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and clearer to read – we hope
and is manufactured to the ISO 14001 you agree! Please email us at
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impacts on the environment. It is also a have any questions or comments
Carbon Balanced Paper – where the carbon about the re-design.
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production process and an equivalent Shelley Hoppe,
carbon credit (offset) has been purchased. Editor
© 2011 Shell International B.V.

SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011

 2

03
03 09 NATURAL GAS
REVOLUTION
Shell’s FLNG had over 300,000 hits
on YouTube – why?

07
NEWS IN BRIEF
An update on the Gannet incident, plus find
out how cab drivers are getting even smarter.

09
MY GENERATION
Life offshore, from two perspectives.

13
CONTENTS BOUNDLESS ENERGY
Louise Kingham from the Energy Institute
gives us her point of view.

25 15 15
FUELLING A LOWER-
CARBON FUTURE
WITH BIOFUELS
Shell and Cosan: a joint venture to
become a leading producer of ethanol.

18
OUT IN THE OPEN
Mutiu Sunmonu on the SPDC’s drive
...A TURNING POINT IN THE SEARCH to increase its oil spill transparency.
FOR ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES.
21
SLICK
Shell Lubricants revamps its entire portfolio!

23
GROWING TALENT
Making sure Shell has the right people
with the right skills in the right places.

25
OUT OF HOURS
Meet a motorcycle racer and
a novice queen bee.
3

NATURAL
GAS
REVOLUTION
Shell’s Prelude FLNG facility
is engineering on an epic
scale. Longer than four football
fields and displacing six times
as much water as the largest
aircraft carrier, it will be the
biggest floating production
facility in the world.

SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011

 COVER STORY 4

THIS IS GROUNDBREAKING
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED BY
SHELL. IT HAS THE POTENTIAL
TO CHANGE THE WAY WE
PRODUCE NATURAL GAS.
NEIL GILMOUR, SHELL GENERAL MANAGER FLNG
5 NATURAL GAS REVOLUTION

01

PRELUDE FLNG
IN NUMBERS

600
ENGINEERS WORKED
ON THE FACILITY’S
DESIGN OPTIONS

4
200 KM
WILL BE THE FACILITY’S DISTANCE
FROM THE NEAREST LAND
FOOTBALL FIELDS,
LAID END TO END, WOULD
BE SHORTER THAN THE
175 FACILITY’S DECK
OLYMPIC-SIZED SWIMMING
POOLS COULD HOLD THE SAME
AMOUNT OF LIQUID AS THE
FACILITY’S STORAGE TANKS

6,700
HORSEPOWER WILL BE
THE POWER OF EACH OF
THE THREE THRUSTERS USED
TO STEER THE FACILITY 50 MILLION LITRES OF COLD

6
WATER WILL BE DRAWN FROM
OF THE LARGEST AIRCRAFT
CARRIERS WOULD DISPLACE
THE SAME AMOUNT OF WATER
THE OCEAN EVERY HOUR TO
AS THE FACILITY HELP COOL THE NATURAL GAS

105 METRES IS THE HEIGHT

OF THE TURRET THAT
RUNS THROUGH THE VESSEL,
SECURED TO THE SEABED BY Conventional LNG operations extract natural
MOORING LINES gas and pipe it ashore, where land-based LNG

-162°
CELSIUS IS THE TEMPERATURE AT WHICH
NATURAL GAS TURNS INTO LNG
The Prelude FLNG
(Floating Liquefied Natural
Gas) Project got the final
go-ahead in May. Once
processing facilities purify the gas and cool it to
o
-162 C. At this temperature it condenses and
shrinks down to a volume 600 times smaller,
making it easier for carriers to transport the LNG
to wherever it’s needed.

1/600
completed, it will enable The Prelude FLNG Project will instead clean
Shell to tap into the Prelude and chill the gas at sea, storing it on-board in
IS THE FACTOR cryogenic tanks before offloading it to tankers.
BY WHICH A VOLUME OF NATURAL gas field off the coast of
This eliminates the need for lengthy pipelines
GAS SHRINKS WHEN IT CONDENSES Australia, producing at least and on-shore infrastructure, enabling Shell to

117%
INTO LNG 5.3 million tonnes per annum exploit gas fields that would otherwise be too
(mtpa) of liquid products. remote or difficult. “The time of easy oil and gas

25
OF HONG KONG’S ANNUAL is over, so FLNG fits in with that whole logic of
ENERGY DEMAND COULD BE
This includes 3.6 mtpa of
having to do more complicated things to access
MET BY THE FACILITY’S ANNUAL LNG, 1.3 mtpa of condensate
LNG PRODUCTION new reserves,” says Barend Pek, General
and 0.4 mtpa of liquefied Manager for LNG Development.
YEARS petroleum gas (LPG). “This is groundbreaking technology
IS THE TIME THE PRELUDE FLNG
developed by Shell,” agrees Neil Gilmour, Shell
FACILITY WILL STAY AT THE LOCATION
General Manager FLNG. “It has the potential to
TO DEVELOP GAS FIELDS
change the way we produce natural gas.”

SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011


Processing the gas at sea will also reduce
the environmental impact, since FLNG avoids
the need for shoreline pipe crossings, dredging
and jetty works.
The Prelude FLNG facility will be 488
metres long, 74m wide and will displace
around 600,000 tonnes of water. Despite
its impressive proportions, the facility is
one-quarter the size of an equivalent plant on
land. Engineers have designed components
that will stack vertically to save space.
The operating plant, for example, will be
positioned over the LNG storage tanks.
The cryogenic cooling systems will also be
supported by an innovative system that pumps
50 million litres of cooling water per hour up
from the deep ocean. This will reduce the
overall size of the onboard cooling equipment.
The huge facility will be built at Technip/
Samsung Heavy Industries’ Geoje Island ship
yards in South Korea. It will then be towed to its
location some 475 kilometres north-northeast of
02
01: The turret mooring system allows
Shell’s FLNG facility to stay safely moored
even in the most extreme weather (left).
02: Shell FLNG has a mature design enabling safe,
robust and stable LNG production (above).
03: Whilst the Prelude FLNG facility is being built, the subsea
production wells will be drilled and infrastructure installed in time
to supply gas to the facility (below).
Previous page: The Prelude FLNG facility will be moored around
200 km off the coast of Australia.
03
Broome, Western Australia. The facility will
then be hooked up to the undersea infrastructure
ready for commissioning. The moorings are
designed to allow the surface structure to steer
into the wind, enabling it to withstand the most
powerful tropical cyclones. The Prelude FLNG
facility is designed to stay put for around 25
years, after which it will be refurbished. The hull
has a design life of 50 years.
Prelude is a world first and it’s taken over
1.6 million man hours so far to complete the first
phase of design. Shell engineers in the UK and
across Europe are responsible for much of that
effort. “The Prelude FLNG Project is the start of a
new series of gas development programmes, not
a one-off project. Shell has taken the approach of
developing a formula for FLNG, so we’ll design
one, then build more,” says Barend.
Shell is also involved in two other FLNG
developments; Sunrise located in the East Timor
Sea where Shell has already chosen FLNG as
their preferred approach, but the preliminary
6
decision is yet to receive regulatory approval.
Secondly, Shell was also selected as a partner
in the Abadi gas field project off the coast
of Indonesia .
According to Barend, it’s unlikely that
we’ll ever see an FLNG project off the coast
of Northern Europe: “There are so many
consumers in Northern Europe that it makes
more sense to pipe the gas directly to them,
rather than liquefying it, transporting it by
tanker and gasifying it again.”
To find out more about the FLNG project,
and view the YouTube animation, please visit:
www.shell.com/flng
This QR code for the Shell FLNG YouTube
animation can be decoded using the
camera and QR reader in your smartphone.
If your phone doesn’t have a reader, you
can download one and install it yourself.
Open the application and snap a picture
of the code.
SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011
7
NEWS IN BRIEF
AUTUMN 2011
HOW MUCH OIL HAS BEEN SPILLED?
In total, about 218 tonnes of crude oil have been spilled into the North Sea.
This equates to around a twelfth of an Olympic-sized swimming pool in volume.
GANNET
FIELD
185 KILOMETRES
ABERDEEN
KEY
OIL
GAS
SOURCE OF LEAK
GANNET E
01
The Gannet Alpha oil spill
01: Gannet field plan On Wednesday August 10, an oil
(above left).
sheen was spotted on the surface of
02: Cross Section of 24”
the water near the Gannet Alpha
Casing/Carrier Line
(above right). North Sea platform. An oil leak was
later identified on an 8-inch carrier
For further
system from a subsea well, tied back
information please to the Gannet Alpha platform. Shell
check www.shell.co.uk took immediate action, and informed
the authorities. The leak was halted
completely on Friday 19 August.
Gannet Alpha is located 180 km
off the Scottish coast – a platform
owned 50/50 with Exxon and
operated by Shell.
Once the source of the leak
had been identified, the flowline
was depressurised and isolated on
Thursday August 11, stopping the
main flow of oil. A small amount of
oil had continued to seep from a
pressure relief valve at the end of
the carrier line system.
On Friday August 19, Shell divers
closed the relief valve. There is now
SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011
METRES
80 KILO
UK
GANNET A Platform
N 57o 11.062533’
E 00o 59.905483’
7 KILOMETRES
GANNET F Intersection
4 KILOMETRES
GANNET F
N 57o 0.5.443167’
E 00o 57.565033’
ongoing monitoring of the flowline
to check that it remains sealed.
“Closing the valve was a key
step,” said Glen Cayley, Technical
Director of Shell’s exploration and
production activities in Europe,
based in Aberdeen. “It was a
careful and complex operation
conducted by skilled divers, with
support from our technical teams
onshore. But we will be watching
the line closely from now on.”
“Our next task was to remove
the residual oil from inside the
depressurised flowline, and
that operation is ongoing,”
Mr Cayley said.
Shell has set up an investigation
team to establish the cause of the
leak and will also co-operate with
government authorities as they
conduct their own investigations.
Shell has been as open and
transparent as possible in the
02
CROSS SECTION OF
24” CASING/CARRIER LINE
UTILITIES
(power, hydraulics etc)
NORWAY
8” OIL
PRODUCTION
FLOWLINE
circumstances. On Wednesday
August 10, the UK Department of
Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
was notified within four hours that a
leak had been discovered, along
with other relevant regulatory
bodies. Regular updates were
provided to the media, through a
dedicated website.
After 10 days, the remaining
leaking valve at the Gannet Alpha
North Sea platform was closed
and no more oil was believed to be
escaping. But, because oil remains
in the carrier line itself, mitigating the
risk of any additional leakage will
be a separate and ongoing task.
Observers continue to monitor
for the potential impacts on wildlife;
however, the incident involved a
light crude oil, which seemed to
disperse naturally due to wave
action and evaporation without
reaching the shore.

SMARTER
GAS LINE CABBIES
SHELL SMARTER CAB DRIVERS AIMS TO HELP
BRITISH CAB DRIVERS BECOME MORE FUEL
EFFICIENT AND SAVE MONEY BY MAKING
SIMPLE CHANGES TO THE WAY THEY DRIVE.
Working in collaboration with
the RSA (Royal Society for the
encouragement of Arts,
24” CASING/ Manufactures and Commerce),
CARRIER LINE the Shell Smarter Cab Drivers’
four week driving challenge
aimed to apply Shell’s driving
tips, as well as specially designed
‘nudges’ to see whether drivers
can adapt their behaviour in
order to reduce fuel costs.
Public hire cab drivers from 10
regions around the UK monitored
their fuel efficiency performance as
they travelled around picking up
passengers. Their efforts were
tracked in real-time on the Shell
Smarter Cab Drivers online hub –
www.smartercabdrivers.com – and
on the dedicated campaign Twitter
feed, @SmarterCabbies, to show
us all how easy it can be to make
improvements in fuel efficiency.
During the Shell Smarter
This is a significant Cab Drivers challenge, 16 of
spill in the context the participants were equipped
of annual amounts with state of the art telemetry
of oil spilled in the technology to track their driving
North Sea. We care behaviour, while a further four
about the environment drivers tracked their performance
and we regret the manually, to see whether a
spill has happened. hands-on or automatic approach
It has been taken delivers the greater improvement.
very seriously and By the halfway point of the
challenge, the cab drivers had
we have responded
promptly to it. already delivered a 12% average
fuel efficiency improvement.
The Shell Smarter Cab Drivers
GLEN CAYLEY, challenge is investigating whether
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
traditional learning methods such as
OF SHELL’S EXPLORATION
AND PRODUCTION Shell’s Smarter Driving tips can be
ACTIVITIES IN EUROPE enhanced when combined with the
RSA’s own ‘steer theory’ techniques
– which are designed to reinforce
8
long-term behavioural changes. 01
While all participants received
Shell’s Smarter Driving training and
guidance, 10 of the cab drivers
created nudges and reminders
throughout the challenge to further
encourage their efforts and remind
them of their training. The campaign
is supported by various organisations
including the AA, RAC, Transport for
London, The Knowledge, and the
Institute of Advanced Motorists.
“We know fuel prices are
high right now, so it’s important
that we help people save fuel
and money,” said Melanie Lane,
General Manager of Shell UK Retail.
“We have research from campaigns
in different markets to show that by
applying simple tips you can save
up to 10% on your fuel bill. It’s not
always easy to do day-to-day, which
is why Shell is working with cab
drivers to understand the challenges
drivers face in being more fuel
efficient. We hope that, as a result
of this campaign, cab drivers will
become vocal advocates for fuel
efficient driving.”
To find out more, take a
look at www.smartercabdrivers.com 02
WE KNOW FUEL
PRICES ARE HIGH
RIGHT NOW, SO IT’S
IMPORTANT THAT WE
HELP PEOPLE SAVE
FUEL AND MONEY.
MELANIE LANE, GENERAL
MANAGER OF SHELL UK RETAIL 01& 02: Smarter cabbies attend training day in London.
SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011
9 SHELL IN THE UK

mygeneration

WE HAVE FAR BETTER ONSHORE SUPPORT, AND WE

INVOLVE STAFF IN OUR KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE
IN A WAY THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN SO MUCH BEFORE.
JOHN JACK, RELIEF OIM ON ANASURIA

Main image: Daniel Fitzgerald,

SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011 Graduate Offshore Installation Manager

What is life offshore Offshore Installation Managers, or OIMs as they
are known, carry complete responsibility for an
like? We talk to two offshore installation and its staff. With many
veterans of this career about to retire, it’s become
Offshore Installation important recently to attract new talent in these
Managers, John Jack roles. We spoke to John Jack, who’s about to
retire, and his colleague, Daniel Fitzgerald, a
and Daniel Fitzgerald, recent graduate, for two different perspectives.
to find out. A typical day for John
John Jack is a Relief OIM on Anasuria, an
FPSO (floating production storage offloading
vessel), and the Nelson Platform in the North
Sea. Due to retire this year, he has spent the
last 15 years in the role.
“We call a typical day ‘steady state
production’, meaning steady production,
no incidents, problems or issues,” says John.
“Those days make life very comfortable, and
they ensure we deliver a safe and economic
operation that produces our oil and gas targets.”
On Anasuria, most staff work from 7am to
7pm, although OIMs are on constant call,
and operations staff cover 24-hours a day in
two shifts. John is in his office by 6am. “I’ll chat
with my control room operator or shift supervisor
to ascertain the exact status of the plant; has
anything happened overnight? Then, based
on information from all departments, I’ll compile
a report illustrating what we’ve produced in
the last 24 hours, any safety or environmental
incidents, and what work has been done.
This gets sent onshore by 7am,” says John.
After breakfast, there’s a daily ‘town hall’
meeting in the control room with all crew, to
discuss yesterday’s performance, and any safety
issues. If there’s an incident on another platform,
this is when staff would be briefed about it, or if
any necessary improvements have been
identified and need to be made. “There’s also a
quick 10-minute review from key department
managers, where we give recognition to anyone
who’s done something special,” says John. “It’s
not just about me talking to the troops; it’s about
everybody being involved as a team.”
John believes it’s extremely important to get out
and talk to people: “I’m a great believer in
empowerment. I call it ‘trust and verify’ – we trust
10
people to do their job, but as heads of
departments, supervisors and managers, we
verify that they’re doing it correctly. I try to get out
three times a day for about 45 minutes each.”
Then there’s a daily ‘YTT’ meeting (yesterday,
today and tomorrow) as well as an evening
meeting with the heads of department – to
run through any issues, safety and support
requirements. “Officially, I should be finished
by 7pm but that doesn’t often happen,” says
John. “It’s usually closer to 8.30-9pm.”
In the evenings, people organise their own
film nights, and there’s TV. John says he does a
lot of reading and making fishing flies, as well
as catching up on his email.
At the end of the two-week shift,
comprehensive handover notes are sent to the
replacement OIM a day prior to changeover,
with a follow-up phone call.
How has the job
changed over 15 years?
“Offshore, I’ve seen cultural changes – a
vastly improved attitude towards safety and
the environment, as well as more focus on
deliverables,” says John. “My team knows
exactly what we need to deliver in each of our
two-week stints. Another great improvement is
communications; we talk to each other more
than ever before.”
As a result, John feels the relationships
between the onshore and offshore teams area
much better. “Years ago, onshore managers only
spoke to us if there was a problem,” says John.
“But these days, we analyse issues together –
and get to the root cause of problems quicker.
“ We have far better onshore support, and
we involve staff in our knowledge and expertise
in a way that didn’t happen so much before.
Additionally, senior management is far more
approachable. We’ve gone from a place where
we used to make improvements reactively,
based on what happened, to now proactively
looking for improvement.”
John is due to retire this year. “I’ll really miss
the camaraderie,” he says. “Amongst such a
small community, the development of good
relationships is crucial to the success of the
SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011
11 SHELL IN THE UK
01
THE GOOD THING ABOUT
HAVING EXPERIENCED PEOPLE
LIKE JOHN AROUND IS THAT
I CAN CALL HIM ANY TIME
DURING A TWO-WEEK STINT,
JUST TO TEST MY THOUGHT
PROCESSES WITH HIM.
SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011
platform. However, I’m a fanatical fisherman,
so I’m looking forward to doing more of that.”
His advice to new OIMs is simply to “enjoy
every minute of this fantastic job.”
Coming upstream
Daniel Fitzgerald, also an OIM for Anasuria,
is new to the role, having been in position
since January this year. “I grew up in Northern
Australia, studied as a process engineer, and
after graduation attended a Shell recruitment
day. It took six months for Shell to find me a
suitable role,” he says. “I’d applied to other
companies, but I really wanted to work in the
upstream field and there wasn’t much of that
in Australia at the time.”
International experience is held in high
regard by Australian employers, so Daniel
accepted the free flight to Scotland and an
offshore job in January 2005, leaving a summer
in Sydney to arrive in a cold winter in Aberdeen.
The road to OIM
“My first few months in the job were pretty
intense,” says Daniel. “Usually you go through
a graduate programme that structures where
you go and what you do for the first three or
four years; I took a slightly different route
and stayed offshore, where I’ve spent five
of the last six and a half years. Fairly early
on, you realise that the OIMs position, in
terms of what you’re exposed to, what you’re
responsible for, and the role you play within
the organisation, is quite pivotal.”
Daniel’s got a point: input from senior
management and VP level, plus all the
stakeholder engagement onshore gets
funnelled through the OIM position offshore,
and spreads out to the different departments.
Likewise, all the initiatives that are introduced
to an offshore installation, all of the strategy
direction and daily business needs come
through the OIM as well. There aren’t many
other roles that have that same pivotal nature.
An OIM panel, comprising operations
managers and HR from across the business,
decides if someone has the capacity, and is the
right sort of character and personality for the role.
Once through that, candidates go onto a ‘waiting
bench’ and are then placed onto an installation.
After the OIM assessment, there’s a range of
legislative and other training required (see the
box for the job’s competency requirements).
“We have a weekly offshore exercise to
test our emergency response capabilities,”
says Daniel. “In preparation for that, there’s an
onshore assessment in a simulator, where real
events are thrown at you. The idea is to turn
a major emergency into a logical thought
process – if you step methodically through these
processes, you’ll get to the end and make the
right decisions. Before taking the OIM role,
I was responsible for the operations team.
I’d moved up from shift supervisor to production
supervisor, so the reality of the job has always
been clear to me.
“Now I’m responsible for the whole
installation, I have the opportunity to intervene
and shape where we’re going. It’s taken me
six months to work out where we are as an
installation, and shortly John, Alan (the other
Anasuria OIM), and I will set the strategy for
the next 6-12 months. The personal
development aspect really drives me to get
my team delivering.”
How do you think your
approach differs from John’s?
“As far as deliverables, there’s no difference,
but coming in new, I’m learning while I’m on the
job,” says Daniel. “The good thing about having
experienced people like John around is that I
can call him any time during a two-week stint,
just to test my thought processes with him.”
The role requires extensive and up-to-date
knowledge of legislation, and new HSE measures
– so John has been an essential part of helping
Daniel to learn everything he needs to know and
work through the challenges.
“I try to pull together the best bits of the OIMs
I’ve worked for and shape that into how I want to
lead,” says Daniel. “John’s experience allows him
 12

to drive the business, and hit all the targets, almost 02

effortlessly. For example, I’m responsible for one
of the behavioural change projects across the
whole of the Central and North Sea assets. It’s
exciting for me, but John’s probably seen half a
dozen of these types of projects before…”
Daniel’s advice to anyone thinking of going
the OIM route is to “just do it. It’s superb, and
you really won’t get this breadth of experience
in many other roles.”

To find out more about careers at Shell,

please visit: www.shell.com/home/content/careers/
01: The OIMs try to spend as
03 much time as they can listening
to and advising colleagues
(far left).

ANASURIA: 02: Keeping operations

DID YOU KNOW?

running smoothly at the office
(above).

03: Daniel getting involved

with the team (left).

INSTALLED 1996

SIZE 129,550 DWT, 225M LONG

LOCATED 100 NAUTICAL MILES EAST

OF ABERDEEN IN CENTRAL NORTH
SEA (60 MINUTE HELICOPTER FLIGHT)

ANCHORED TO SEABED BY 12
ANCHOR CHAINS AND WEATHER-
VANES WITH WIND AND TIDE

PRODUCTION SINCE INSTALLATION:

OVER 140,000,000 BARRELS

CAPACITY 850,000 BARRELS OF

CRUDE OIL

OIL EXPORTED TO SHUTTLE TANKERS

WHICH DISCHARGE AT VARIOUS
PORTS AROUND EUROPE

GAS EXPORTED TO FULMAR GAS

PIPELINE WHICH CONNECTS TO
ST FERGUS GAS TERMINAL
OIM COMPETENCY REQUIREMENTS
PERSONNEL MAXIMUM 55
Installation specific safety knowledge
Skill at emergency command and control
View from
onboard the Knowledge of well operations and drilling
Anasuria Knowledge of law and company policy
Installation specific production operations knowledge
Managing HSE
ISSOW site controller
Environmental management (waste, chemicals,
atmospheric emissions, radiation and oil spill response)

SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011

13 THE ENERGY CHALLENGE
“Does the Energy
Institute have clout?”
asks Louise Kingham,
its Chief Executive.
“I interpret that to
mean ‘are we useful?’
– you’d expect me to
say yes, but I say yes
and mean it. We are
independent, we don’t
have an agenda, so
we’re a safe place
for our members, from
Shell to the smallest
sole trader, to come
and talk.”
SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011
Boundless energy
The Energy Institute (EI) is a not for
profit organisation, the result of a
merger between the Institute of
Petroleum and the Institute of Energy
in 2003. It’s a professional body
for the energy industry, for both
individuals and companies, that
delivers good practice and
professionalism. “For individuals,
it’s a professional home,” explains
Louise. “We provide recognition
and awards, whether as a
Technician Member or a Fellow
of the EI, or a chartered title such
as Chartered Petroleum Engineer
or Chartered Energy Manager.
“We also provide knowledge,
personal development and
networking opportunities, all of
which can often lead to better pay
and greater job satisfaction.”
As Louise points out, what
benefits the individual also benefits
companies: “It’s about making their
people the best that they can be.”
However, for industry the EI’s main
focus is good practice operating
guidance, “particularly around
health, safety and environmental
stewardship, and Shell is a major
partner in that work,” says Louise.
“We’re looking at how to improve
human behaviour in the workplace,
improving process safety and
providing guidance on carbon
capture and storage (CCS)
operations. Priorities are brought
forward by the industry, the
regulators and third parties who feel
a solution is needed to a particular
technical challenge or problem.”
One platform, not one voice
Often as not, ‘third parties’ means
government departments. “Last
October, the Department of Energy
and Climate Change was planning
to publish the consultation on
electricity market reform (EMR).
Minister of State Charles Hendry’s
office asked if we could get
involved in helping them deliver
some breakfast briefings for
stakeholders in order to understand
what was really worrying them
about EMR, before they finished
the consultation document.”
After publication in December,
the DECC was back in touch to
request a private meeting with
industry figures to get feedback.
Former Shell Chairman James Smith
FEI attended, along with other
representatives from other companies
and NGOs, to speak directly to
Charles Hendry. Getting a diverse
range of people into one room
for an informed debate is what the
EI does well.
“We have a membership of
15,000 individuals and nearly 300
organisations, so keeping everyone
happy keeps me busy,” laughs
Louise. “But what we don’t do is try
to smooth or blend the views. We
try to make sure that a good cross
section are heard and understood.
The thing that makes us work is that
our diverse membership has different
perspectives and knowledge that
they can air within each other’s
earshot. That’s helpful when you’re
trying to make policy. We’re one
platform, not one voice.”
A future for oil and gas?
Louise may steer ‘one platform’ but
with 18 years in the energy industry
and a recent OBE in the 2011
Queen’s birthday honours list, for
services to the industry, her personal
opinion is worth hearing – for
example, she has solid views on
what is required to meet the global
energy challenge. “There’s a big
immediate future for oil and gas.
We’ve got a twin challenge:
burgeoning population growth and
a growing number of people who
will get their first fridges and their first
cars, coupled with the challenge of
climate change. We’ve got to reduce
carbon emissions significantly, which
is no mean feat.
“In that context there is a
huge opportunity for oil and gas,
particularly gas. As we go
forward gas is the cleanest fossil
fuel with the potential to make it
even cleaner still with abatement
technology like CCS.”
Louise is all for renewables,
but points out that they are only
a percentage of the energy mix.
“There is a lot of support to move
renewables forward, which is
great, but there is still a large role
for cleaner fossil fuel generation.
It’s easy to criticise organisations
that don’t operate in a low carbon
environment, but it’s short sighted
to do so because you’re ignoring
half the conversation. Energy
demand is growing rapidly and
we need more power to resource it.
I work in an informed environment,
so it’s challenging when people put
misinformation out about energy.
It’s not helpful because we need all
forms of energy – it’s not and/or,
it’s and, and, and.”
As Louise points out, the
energy challenge is something
everyone needs to work on
together, from individuals to
companies. “It’s certainly a big
ongoing area of work for the EI,”
she says. “Balancing growth of
energy demand with clean energy
is on our radar, and staying there
for a long time. As is encouraging
bright new talent into the industry
and keeping the industry a safe
place to work.”
 14

AFTER 18 YEARS IN THE INDUSTRY,

THE ENERGY INSTITUTE’S CHIEF
EXECUTIVE LOUISE KINGHAM OBE FEI
IS STILL PASSIONATE ABOUT DRIVING
THE SECTOR FORWARD.

It’s easy to criticise organisations

that don’t operate in a low carbon
environment, but it’s short sighted to
do so because you’re ignoring half
the conversation. Energy demand is
growing rapidly and we need more
power to resource it.
15 FUTURE ENERGY

FUELLING A LOWER-CARBON FUTURE WITH BIOFUELS

SHELL

COSAN

SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011


Shell and Cosan recently launched a multi-billion dollar joint venture that is
expected to become a leading producer of the low-carbon biofuel, ethanol made
from sugar cane. Named Raízen, this major retail and commercial fuels company
will operate in Brazil, one of the world’s fastest-growing biofuel markets.
In one of the biggest biofuels deals to date,
Shell is combining its extensive retail experience,
global network and research in advanced
biofuels with Cosan’s technical knowledge of
producing biofuels on a large scale. Raízen will
produce and sell over 2 billion litres a year of the
lowest-carbon biofuel commercially available
– ethanol made from Brazilian sugar cane.
Shell is already one of the largest distributors
of sustainable biofuels; now it is moving, for the
first time, into production. The deal with Cosan
is a major development in Shell’s strategy of
investing for selective growth in its fuels business.
Raízen will distribute biofuels and over 20
billion litres of other industrial and transport fuels
annually through a combined network of nearly
4,500 Shell-branded service stations. In Brazil it
becomes the third largest fuels company. Plans
would extend the company’s reach in future years
to export more ethanol to other key markets.
Shell believes low-carbon biofuels will be
the most practical and commercially realistic
way to take carbon dioxide (CO2) out of
transport fuel in the coming years and will be
a vital part of the future energy mix.
The joint venture also combines Shell’s
expertise and technology partnerships in
advanced biofuels with Cosan’s experience
in the commercial production of low-carbon
biofuels. This has the potential to accelerate the
commercial production of biofuels from crop
waste and inedible plants.
Raízen’s 24 mills can process up to 62 million
tonnes of cane into sugar or ethanol each year,
with the flexibility to adapt to market demand.
“We are building a leading position in the
most efficient ethanol-producing country in the
world,” says Peter Voser, Shell Chief Executive
Officer. “We believe low-carbon, sustainable
16
biofuels will be increasingly important in the
global transport fuel mix.”
“This is a turning point in the search for
alternative energy sources,” says Rubens Ometto
Silveira Mello, Cosan’s Chairman of the Board.
“Raízen is one of Brazil’s largest companies and
is ready to offer international markets a clean,
renewable and economically viable solution.”
Ethanol made from Brazilian sugar cane
produces around 70% less CO2 than petrol,
Meeting demand when the cultivation and production processes
New energy policies in Europe and the USA are are taken into account.
calling for more renewable, lower-carbon fuels
for transport. Biofuels currently make up around
Brazilian sugar cane yields 7,000 litres of
4% of transport fuel in Europe, and 3% in the ethanol per hectare of cane compared to, for
USA. Globally, biofuels currently meet around example, 3,800 litres for a hectare of corn
3% of road-transport fuel demand. Shell expects in the USA and 2,500 litres for a hectare of
wheat in Europe, according to Unica, the
this to rise to about 9% by 2030. Brazilian sugar-cane industry association.
Brazil leads the world in the use of biofuels
for transport. They are likely to make up more
than 40% of the country’s transport fuel mix by
2030, double today’s proportion. Raízen’s
current annual production capacity will be
enough to meet nearly 9% of Brazil’s current
ethanol demand.
At the pump, Brazilian motorists are offered the
choice of pure ethanol or a blend of
WE ARE BUILDING A
LEADING POSITION IN
THE MOST EFFICIENT
ETHANOL-PRODUCING
COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
PETER VOSER, CEO
SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011
17 FUTURE ENERGY

petrol (gasoline) and ethanol. Around 90% of 01

the country’s new cars can run on either fuel type. SUGAR CANE IS THE MOST EFFICIENT
PLANT WE KNOW IN CONVERTING
“The Raízen business model, which combines
SUNLIGHT INTO ENERGY.
Shell and Cosan assets and has direct access to
consumers, is a breakthrough in the biofuels 01: Turning sugar cane into ethanol
offers a number of environmental
sector,” says Marcos Marinho Lutz, Cosan Chief
benefits (left).
Executive Officer.
02: Government legislation
The sugar cane-to-ethanol process used by forbids industries from entering
Raízen is one of the most efficient in turning sensitive areas such as rainforests
or land needed for other food
biomass into fuel. Brazilian sugar cane yields crops (below left).
7,000 litres of ethanol per hectare of cane 03: Ethanol made from Brazilian
compared to, for example, 3,800 litres for a sugar cane produces around 70%
less CO2 than petrol (below).
hectare of corn in the USA and 2,500 litres for a
hectare of wheat in Europe, according to Unica,
02 03
the Brazilian sugar-cane industry association.
“Sugar cane is the most efficient plant
we know in converting sunlight into energy,”
says Professor Edgar de Beauclair, of the
Crop Production Department São Paulo
State University.

Better biofuels
Turning sugar cane into ethanol offers a number
of environmental benefits over other biofuel
production processes. As it grows, sugar cane
generally absorbs CO2 at a greater rate than
other biofuel crops such as soy.
Ethanol made from Brazilian sugar cane
produces around 70% less CO2 than petrol,
when the cultivation and production processes
are taken into account. Since 2003, the use of
ethanol in Brazil has avoided over 103 million
tonnes of the CO2 that the petrol it has replaced
would have produced, according to Unica.
By-products from turning sugar cane into
ethanol are recycled as organic fertiliser. Plant
waste, called bagasse, is burned to produce
power for the processing mills and surplus
energy is supplied to the national grid.
To further improve productivity, Raízen will
use its own advanced geographical information
system to monitor its land. This allows its
scientists to make accurate predictions about
crop yields and adjust fertiliser or pest control,
for example, to help boost production.
“Brazilian sugar-cane ethanol is one of the
most sustainable and lowest-CO2 biofuels
available,” says Mark Gainsborough, Shell
Executive Vice-President Alternative Energies.
“We expect the development of advanced
biofuels to benefit from Cosan’s feedstock and
its expertise in large-scale biofuels production.
This has the potential to accelerate the future
commercial viability of cellulosic ethanol.”
The deal includes part of Shell’s interest in
the firm Iogen, which uses enzymes to break
down plant waste into ethanol, as well as
Shell’s interest in Codexis, developers of
‘super-enzymes’ for the faster conversion of
plant waste into transport fuels.
SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION
Raízen will also work to improve
the sustainability of its operations.
Sugar cane for ethanol requires
little water to be added, because
Brazil’s tropical rainfall provides
natural irrigation. In the industrial
process Raízen has been
introducing a system that recycles
up to 90% of water used.
Raízen supports the
development of varieties of sugar
cane to suit regional climate and
resist disease. To protect cane from
pests, it breeds and releases
natural predators, further reducing
the use of chemical pesticides.
As a member of Bonsucro,
formerly the Better Sugarcane
Initiative, Raízen has joined with
other producers, non-governmental
organisations and other experts to
establish an EU-approved certificate
for sustainable sugar-cane
production. This covers areas such
as human rights and the impact of
activities on biodiversity.
Raízen is working towards
achieving certification for all ethanol
produced by its own operations over
the coming years. It also plans to
have certified all ethanol produced
from suppliers’ cane.
Current sugar-cane production in
Brazil takes up 8.1 million hectares,
around 0.9% of the country’s land.
Government legislation forbids
industries from entering sensitive
areas such as rainforests or land
needed for other food crops, and
from displacing food crops into other
sensitive areas. National laws also
recognise the rights of indigenous
communities and their claims to land
ownership. The main sugar-growing
areas are hundreds of kilometres
away from the Amazon rainforest.
Raízen is well advanced in
phasing in mechanised harvesting,
ahead of requirements due to come
into force in the main Brazilian
sugar-cane growing state of São
Paulo in 2014. It already uses
machines on around 64% of its
suitable land (with a slope of less
than 12%). CO2 emissions can be
reduced because it avoids the need
to burn the hard straw, a necessary
step in manual cutting.

SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011

NIGERIA 18

01

OUT IN THE OPEN

IN AN INDUSTRY FIRST, THIS YEAR
THE SHELL PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT
COMPANY OF NIGERIA LAUNCHED
A WEBSITE PROVIDING IN-DEPTH REPORTS
OF OIL SPILLS, WHETHER CAUSED BY
SABOTAGE, THEFT OR FROM OPERATIONS.
A LEADING DUTCH NEWSPAPER CALLED
IT “THE EPITOME OF OPENNESS”.
01: SPDC Managing Director, Mutiu Sunmonu

SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011

19 NIGERIA

SABOTAGE: KEY SOURCES 2006–2010

180
SABOTAGE, THEFT, SECUR
AND ILLEGAL REFINING
160

140

10%
120

100
ARE KEY CHALLENGES
80

60
DEDICATED
40
OIL SPILL RESPONSE
20 TEAM IN PLACE

450KM PIPELINE
0
Crude Oil Theft Hacksaw Cuts Drilled Hole Valves Tampering Well Head PL/FL Stealing Explosive Attacks
Tampering

ILLEGAL REFINING OPERATIONS, INCREASINGLY

RE-POLLUTING CLEANED AREAS

Shell Petroleum Development Company of Clearly visible

Nigeria (SPDC) has publicly reported oil spill The site sets out clearly the date and time a leak is
statistics annually since 1995. However, in reported, a description of the terrain, and when
an unprecedented move this year, it is going clean-up and site remediation is completed and
even further. signed off. “I consider it a motivating tool,” says
Since January 2011, spills from SPDC Mutiu. “Everything we do to tackle the problem
facilities in the Niger Delta have been of spills is clearly visible. As well as providing
posted on a public website. The site provides transparency for our stakeholders it also drives us
fast, clear, indisputable facts that catalogue to improve our performance,” he says.
the progress of oil spills from discovery, Often, the cause of spills is obvious.
through investigation, clean-up and Photographs, which are date and time-logged,
remediation to return the site to its pre-spill show crudely hacked pipelines and the evidence
state. The website also includes photos of oil theft through hastily attached valves and
and weekly updates, together with reports pipes used to siphon off the crude.
of the investigation teams, which include SPDC estimates that approximately 75% of all
SPDC, government regulators and affected oil spill incidents that took place in the Niger Delta
community representatives. NIGERIA between 2006-2010 were caused by sabotage
SPDC Managing Director, Mutiu Sunmonu, or oil theft, with the remainder due to operational
says the website is part of SPDC’s drive to LAGOS failures. The website data doesn’t always make for
increase the transparency of its oil spill comfortable reading for SPDC. In June, one
performance. “We record as much information incident, which was due to operational failure in
BOMADI BODO
as possible about the spills that take place. the Nkpoku-Bomu pipeline at Akpajo, led to the
But what this site also provides is a real sense spilling of over 860 barrels of oil.
of our response capabilities, our commitment There have been increased attacks on Shell
“Operational spills are always unacceptable,”
to clean-up, and the challenges we face pipelines in the Niger Delta. acknowledges Mutiu, “we still face challenges
daily,” he says. today. Even though our overall spill volumes so far

SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011


NUMBER OIL SPILLS PER YEAR
RITY 250
200
150
INCREASE IN
SECURITY TO 100
PATROL LINE ON
TRANS NIGER 50
PIPELINE, OGONI
0
2005 2006 2007 2008
REPLACED 2009 – 2010
this year are lower than 2010, we are concerned
that the actual frequency of spills are not yet
decreasing. We are working hard to improve our
performance. We’re putting tremendous focus on
every aspect of both spill prevention and the way
we approach clean-up and remediation.”
As part of its ongoing asset integrity
programme, SPDC replaced 132 kilometres
of pipelines and flowlines in 2010, in addition
to the 318 kilometres replaced in 2009.
All pipelines are buried at least one metre
below ground, while manifolds are fenced in.
Majority of spills
Despite these efforts, and the fact that community
members are employed in surveillance of
pipelines and facilities, sabotage and theft still
account for the majority of the spills. In 2010
there were 112 instances of sabotage and
crude oil theft, and 30 operational spills.
Says Mutiu: “We have never shied away from
reporting our own failings. We acknowledge
them and learn from them. In 2010, most of our
operational spillage happened when we started
up production from assets that had been out of
commission for some time – mainly as a result
20
OPEN TO RECOMMENDATIONS
A recent study by the United of procedures. It also said that the
Nations Environment Programme company’s spill remediation
(UNEP) centred on oil spills in technique called remediation by
Ogoniland – an area covering 1% enhanced natural attenuation
of the Niger Delta. SPDC ceased (RENA) used in treating the surface
production there in 1993 due to land layer was inadequate. SPDC is
threats and violence against already reviewing its remediation
employees and facilities, but its practices across the Niger Delta and
pipelines still cross the area.
UNEP’s study looked at
contaminated land, groundwater,
surface water, sediment, vegetation,
air pollution, public health, industry
practices and institutional issues.
While it expects that spills in various
parts of Ogoniland can be cleaned 01
up within five years, UNEP says a
sustainable recovery could take looking to involve independent
Operational
Sabotage
25 to 30 years.
Mutiu Sunmonu, SPDC’s
Managing Director, agreed with
international experts in assessing
how it can improve. The company is
also examining ways to bring third
UNEP’s report about the need for party verification to the oil spill
the authorities to take concerted investigation process, bringing
action to curb illegal activities, further transparency to the
in particular oil theft and refining, assessment of cases and volumes.
which are responsible for Announcing support for
exacerbating many of the recommendations made to
environmental and social issues. SPDC, some of which will determine
“Unless these activities are how it operates across the Niger
brought to a halt, any action we take Delta, Mutiu concluded: “We pledge
will be of limited impact,” he said. to work with the government, UNEP
2009 2010
SPDC was criticised in the report and others on the next steps.”
in several areas, including
01: Oil spills out from a cut in a Nkpoku-Bomu
maintenance and the application pipeline at Bera, Ogoni.
of deliberate damage done when we were
effectively unable to operate in that area.”
In an article published in July, respected
THIS SITE ALSO
Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf described
the Nigeria oil spill website as “the epitome of PROVIDES A REAL
openness”. The article, written by the newspaper’s SENSE OF OUR
Africa correspondent, Joël Roerig, also stated:
“It is not Shell who is guilty of the majority of oil RESPONSE CAPABILITIES,
pollution in Nigeria, as environmentalists and the OUR COMMITMENT
local population would have us believe, but
rebels and criminal gangs.” TO CLEAN-UP, AND
However, as Mutiu explains: “No matter THE CHALLENGES
what the cause, SPDC cleans up the spills and,
where our operations impact communities, we WE FACE DAILY.
acknowledge this and pay compensation.”
According to Mutiu, continuing to put spill MUTIU SUNMONU
information into the public domain enables
people to focus on the facts and witness the
causes for themselves.
You can find the SPDC ‘Oil Spill Data’
website at: www.shell.com.ng/home/content/
nga/environment_society/respecting_the_environment/
oil_spills/
SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011
21 INNOVATION
Shell can boast 60 years’ of
experience in developing and
making lubricants for a wide range
of industries – but in 2011, as a result
of a three-year process, something
unprecedented has happened. In
May, Shell launched a new range of
industrial lubricants, followed in June
by a new range of industrial greases
under the new brand name, Gadus.
Why such a big deal? Because it’s
the first time a major lubricants
supplier has revamped its entire
industrial portfolio.
“We have made a significant
investment in simplifying the way we
present our range of products to our
customers,” says Olivier Leclercq,
Cluster Marketing Manager for
lubricants for Europe West, which
covers the UK, France and Benelux.
In fact, the entire range has been
redesigned and rebranded. Products
with overlapping applications or
where technology has been replaced
by more advanced formulas have
been removed. Choice has been
enhanced by selectively adding
speciality and synthetic products.
Products are now graded in a tier
system, from S1 through to S6, with
the latter being the more advanced.
Packaging has been standardised
across the range to make storage
and stacking easier, and to reduce
to risk of misapplication in factory
environments. The result is a few,
larger brand families with new
product names.
Easier for customers
For an interim period, Shell will
provide tools to help customers identify
the right product, including brochures
with details of the old names and the
relevant replacement, and new icons
on the packaging. Each pack will also
be colour coded to differentiate
between tiers.
This transformation came about in
response to customer research, which
revealed that the array of choice
available was confusing.
Simply put, lubricants are used in
moving components to reduce friction,
wear and heat. But Shell customers
cover a wide range of industries, from
general manufacturing to mining, to
running vehicles for haulage,
agriculture or company fleets, all of
which have very specific needs.
Getting the right product is crucial in
terms of keeping things running
SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011
efficiently and cost effectively.
“The reason for the new tiering
system is to make it easier for our
customers to select the right oil,” says
Jon Huggett, UK Sales Manager for
Industrial Business. “In simple terms,
if you had a piece of equipment, say
a hydraulic pump, that’s 50 years old
you’d probably go for a S1 product
because that would do the job. If it were
for a hydraulic pump that’s on a modern
blow moulding machine, then you’d go
for a higher specification number
because it’ll give you better efficiency,
longer oil drains and longer life. So in
that case you’d choose an S6 product.”
“My team have gone through a lot of
training and are currently implementing
the changes with our customers.
It’s been a huge opportunity for us,”
continues Jon. “It’s allowing us to really
optimise our value to customers and see
what other opportunities are available.”
A smooth transition
Another big part of the launch process
has been to secure Original Equipment
Manufacturer or OEM approval for the
new products, in itself a massive
undertaking. “Even a name change
needs approval,” explains Jon. For a
new product to be accredited, it has
to pass a range of tests defined by the
OEM. “We can do some of them in
our Shell labs as some of the tests are
standard and we then share the
information with the OEM,” says Jon.
“Or it could be on the OEM’s premises,
in a laboratory working and testing the
oil on applications.”
“The simplification of our product
portfolio is a real commitment,” says
Olivier. “We are really the only one in
the lubricants industry to revamp their
range in order to help customers make
the right choice.
“Before the launch we had slightly
more than 500 packaged products for
industrial application in the UK; now
have slightly less than 300.”
There has been a lot of hard work
between different parts of the business
to get this far. “It’s been a smooth
transition – and that doesn’t happen
by chance,” says Olivier. “All business
partners have come together: the
sales and marketing community, the
technical community, as well as our
supply chain and our customer service
centre, and sales support centre, to
support the transition from the old
products to the new ones.”
 22

SLICK
A MAJOR RELAUNCH OF SHELL
INDUSTRIAL LUBRICANTS AND
GREASES IS SET TO MAKE CHOOSING
THE RIGHT PRODUCT A WHOLE LOT
EASIER FOR CUSTOMERS.

SHELL LUBRICANTS SHINE

Morrisons is the UK’s fourth largest

supermarket. As part of its target to
reduce the carbon footprint of its haulage
operation by 8% from 2005-2010,
the company’s Head of Engineering
decided to take a look at decreasing fuel
consumption through use of more energy
efficient lubricants. In a controlled test,
10 identical vehicles were monitored
– five used Shell lubricant and five used
a 10W-40 reference oil. The result was
2% less fuel used in the trucks that had
the Shell lubricant – a carbon emission
saving equivalent to over 1,500 tonnes
of CO2 across the fleet! Shell lubricants
are now used across Morrisons’ entire
fleet of 700 vehicles, helping to deliver
products across the country.

We have made a significant

investment in simplifying the
way we present our range
of products to our customers.
OLIVIER LECLERCQ,
MARKETING MANAGER, LUBRICANTS

SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011

23 SHELL IN THE COMMUNITY

Growing
CHEMIST

SUPPLY SCHEDULER

talent WELL ENGINEER

GEOLOGIST

MANAGING ITS With the global energy challenge

demanding the development of all
WORKFORCE ON energy resources, wherever in the
A GLOBAL BASIS IS world they might be, energy
ESTIMATOR

companies are facing a challenge

TRANSFORMING of their own: making sure they have
PIPELINE ENGINEER

SHELL’S ABILITY the right people with the right skills

in the right places at the right time.
TO ADDRESS THE Shell is taking a particularly SYSTEMS OFFICER
WORLD’S ENERGY bold approach to making sure it
gets this right, directly linking how it
CHALLENGE. manages its 93,000-strong global
workforce with what it wants the RIG OPERATIVE

business to achieve.
Hugh Mitchell, Shell’s Chief
Human Resources and Corporate
LINE MANA
Officer, gave one of the main
speeches at June’s Economist Talent NETWORK ENGINEER

Management Summit in London;

he was keen to share Shell’s
experience of managing its
workforce in a way that will help the
company rise to what he describes
as “the considerable challenge to
recruit, develop and deploy the
technical and other expertise we
need to develop energy resources
across the whole energy spectrum.”
Hugh uses the example of work
Shell is doing in China to show
why its global approach is needed,
and how it’s working in practice.
“We are helping our Chinese
partners develop the technology
to significantly increase domestic Q ATAR
L O
OM

gas production, contributing to SAU PA U

the country’s ambition to increase
CHIN

TH
GD

the role gas plays in its energy EH

IN

mix,” he explains. “This represents K

AG
A

D
a great business opportunity – but IT E
UN
UE

we will need to recruit and train

large numbers of skilled workers...
and that’s a major challenge for
our HR function.”

Targeting talent
As the HR function is designed to
manage people across more than
90 countries, it was able to get to
work quickly on a solution. Talent

SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011


CHEMICALS MTA
BUSINESS ADVISER
01
HR ASSOCIATE
PLANT MANAGER
01: “We will need to recruit and train large
AGER numbers of skilled workers” – Hugh Mitchell, Shell’s
Chief Human Resources and Corporate Officer.
HEAD OF OPERATIONS
The Economist Talent
Management Summit,
organised by the conference
arm of The Economist magazine,
brings together around 150
influential thinkers and HR and
board directors from around the
world to hear about the latest
thinking and best practice
in workforce management.
This year, speakers from Shell,
GE, Walmart, Diageo, TATA,
NASA and other leading global
companies described their
experiences of using the talent
in their organisations to support
business strategy and growth.
TAKING A GLOBAL APPROACH TO
PEOPLE MANAGEMENT GIVES OUR
BUSINESS THE FLEXIBILITY WE NEED
IN A FAST-CHANGING WORLD.
HUGH MITCHELL, SHELL’S CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES
AND CORPORATE OFFICER
managers working with local
business leaders in China arranged
for local employees to be sent
overseas on short-term, hands-on
assignments to extend their
knowledge. Skilled people were
also recruited elsewhere, including
Chinese nationals abroad who
were encouraged to come and
work for Shell in China. And
existing Shell employees with the
right skills have been relocated.
The fact that many of the world’s
growth markets are now in countries
like China, where energy companies
have not traditionally had a strong
presence, reinforces the value of
Shell’s global approach, as Hugh
explains. “We can assess which of
our businesses will grow, which will
decline and how our geographical
footprint will change over time.
We then assess the demographic
profile of our employees against
these changing requirements and
recruit selectively, choosing the
markets, skills and schools we want
to target on the basis of both global
and local need.”
Strengthening skills
Taking a similar global and
long-term overview of skills
requirements has led to training
developments too, including the
creation of specialist academies.
Being able to manage huge,
complex projects in challenging
environments is one of Shell’s main
sources of competitive advantage,
for example, but with so much
activity – over 20 major projects
are due to start production between
2011 and 2014 – there is the
potential for a lack of coherence.
As a result, the Shell Project
Academy was set up in 2005 to
develop first-class project managers.
The critical deal-making skills
that underpin major projects have
24
been addressed in the same way,
with a Commercial Academy to
teach negotiation and relationship
management skills.
“With many Shell employees
working on deals, whether as
deal leaders, lawyers or finance
staff, the Commercial Academy
has helped to boost our Mergers
and Acquisitions expertise,” Hugh
says. “A great example is our
agreement to form a joint venture
in Brazil with Cosan, the country’s
biggest producer of biofuels.”
The venture, named Raízen,
which will also distribute fuels
through a network of 4,500
Shell-branded service stations,
began operating successfully
this June (see article on page 15).
Testing times
This move into biofuels highlights
Shell’s focus on sustainable
development – and the resulting
need to develop what are often
entirely new skills. In response,
Shell has launched programmes
like the sustainable development
master class, covering stakeholder
engagement and ecosystem
preservation, as well as specific
training projects for people working
in areas of acute social and
environmental sensitivity.
Making sure Shell’s people
strategy is fit for purpose is an
ongoing challenge: one of the
biggest tests of the approach
– as well as one of the biggest
opportunities for learning – is now
underway at the Prelude gas field
in Australia (see page 3). Here,
preparations have already started
to recruit and train the teams that
will operate the world’s first
Floating Liquefied Natural Gas
plant – a full five years before it
is due to come online.
SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011
 OUT OF HOURS
25 LUCY RITCHIE
We put the frames in a huge centrifuge, but
it is quite messy, so while it only took an hour
to extract the honey, it took us four hours to
clean up the kitchen, ourselves and the dog.
QUEEN
NOVICE BEE-KEEPER
LUCY RITCHIE CHRONICLES
OF THE HIVES
THE UPS AND DOWNS –
MOSTLY DOWNS – OF
HER FIRST SEASON.
You thought the power play of ancient Rome
was murderous? You should hear what goes on
in the average beehive.
According to Lucy Ritchie, the queen’s throne
is as shaky as that of any Nero or Caligula.
Apparently, if the workers start to sense that their
queen is not up to the job – perhaps her egg
production has dropped – they start nurturing a
new queen to take her place.
What happens next, if Lucy fails to intervene,
is that either the old queen is ruthlessly murdered
or the new queen leads the troops off to found a
new kingdom, leaving the old queen to die in
the ruins of her palace. Sad, but necessary for
the survival of the fittest.
Lucy knows all about this power play,
because it happened seven times in her first
season of bee keeping last year. “The workers
SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011
create special queen cups, as they’re called, to
grow the larvae of new queens, from which they
choose one,” says Lucy, a production geologist
with Central North Sea Assets in Aberdeen.
“Bee-keepers have to spot these cups and
destroy them before they get too far, otherwise
the hive swarms with the new queen as she flies
off to set up a new nest.”
Fortunately for Lucy, none of the swarms
ended up supplying any headlines in the local
newspaper. All the same, they were averaging
two a month during the swarming season
of May to July, so they must have kept Lucy
pretty busy.
Lucy had been keen to set up a few hives for a
long time and a couple of years ago, she and her
husband teamed up with Lucy’s parents to do so.
“We joined the local bee-keeping
association and attended evening classes and,
in spring 2009, we purchased a small hive with
20,000 European black bees,” she says. “Now
we have four hives, so we are doing our bit to
keep up the bee population, which has been so
badly affected by disease and pesticides in
recent years.”
Lucy had some more beginner’s bad luck
when she tried to extract the honey. “I’m sure the
process is straightforward for experienced
bee-keepers, but we need to refine our method.
“We put the frames in a huge centrifuge, but
it is quite messy, so while it only took an hour to
extract the honey, it took us four hours to clean
up the kitchen, ourselves and the dog.”
 OUT OF HOURS
STUART HAMILTON 26

CATCH HIM
IF YOU CAN
EXHILARATING? DANGEROUS?
OF COURSE. WHY ELSE GO
MOTORCYCLE RACING?

It’s highly competitive, and racers are not afraid to

share their paint with you. I’ve crashed twice, been
knocked off the track once and ridden myself off the
track a few times.

Stuart Hamilton’s family is a bit anxious about
his hobby, which is not surprising, as he
cheerfully admits that he is good at falling off,
crashing and getting knocked off the track by
competitors who will stop at nothing to win.
But to Stuart, it’s all part of the fun of
motorcycle racing, which he only seriously took
up this year after dabbling in it for a few years.
“Motorcycle racing is so much more than an
exciting sport; it is a very sociable scene on and
off track, with family and friends all getting
involved to some extent.”
Based in Aberdeen, Stuart can regularly be
found tearing around the Knockhill circuit in Fife
and the East Fortune circuit in East Lothian. He
has two bikes – a Kawasaki ZXR400 L4, which
he rides in Formula 400 races, and a Kawasaki
ZX6R for Pre-Injection 600 class races.
“In reality, race organisers tend to merge
several classes into a single race, so there’s
quite a range of bikes and abilities, and that
makes for an exciting race,” says Stuart, who
works for Shell as a completion and well-
intervention engineer.
Stuart admits to feeling “very nervous” as he
prepares for a race. “It’s highly competitive, and
racers are not afraid to share their paint with
you. I’ve crashed twice, been knocked off the
track once and ridden myself off the track a few
times,” he says.
Stuart started motorcycle racing in a small way
and thought he could handle it. He did some race
marshalling, then started helping the mechanics,
then found himself dubbed ‘team manager’.
By then, he was hopelessly addicted, and
took to the track himself, at first on track days,
when anyone is allowed to ride around a
circuit in a non-competitive way to get used
to the idea.
By the time he spoke to Shell World UK,
Stuart had competed in more than 20 race
meetings and was placed around the middle of
his club’s championship, which seems pretty
good for his rookie season.
But it’s not good enough to become a
fully-fledged racer; he’s got to complete about
10 race meetings before he can doff his orange
bib – the racing equivalent of removing your
L-plate when you’ve passed your driving test.
And satisfying though Stuart’s progress is, his
priority is not climbing to the top of the
championship table, but learning the tracks,
gaining experience and improving his lap times.
He currently does well over 100mph and hopes
to break the one-minute lap at Knockhill.
“I’ll know when to stop – when I really scare
myself,” concludes Stuart stoically.
If you’ve got an interesting story to tell
and would like to be featured in ‘Out of hours’,
please get in touch! You can email us at:
shellworlduk@shell.com

SHELL WORLD UK MAGAZINE | AUTUMN 2011