UGO AMADI
The recognition and honour for the Managing Director, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo), Engr. Elohor Juliana Aiboni as the 2023 Energy Personality Award at the just-concluded 2024 edition of the Nigeria International Energy Summit in Abuja is a great testament that she is delivering value to the nation’s energy sector and other stakeholders from SNEPCo’s deep-water operations.
A recognition that reflects her pledge and determination to ensuring compliance and upholding due diligence, corporate governance, and commitment to Shell’s values. Elohor recorded the highest number of online votes in that category from industry participants ahead of the summit.
“I’m humbled by this recognition of my modest contributions to the oil and gas industry,” an elated but surprised Elohor said, as she was conferred with the award at the gala dinner and award night. “It is a tribute to the support and collaboration of Shell management and my colleagues as we work to deliver value to Nigeria and other stakeholders from SNEPCo’s deep-water operations,” she added.
Recall that Elohor was named Managing Director of SNEPCo in 2021, the first female to lead a Shell exploration company in over 60 years of operations in Nigeria. Under her leadership, SNEPCo has continued to break new grounds at Bonga, Nigeria’s first deep-water production.
Bracing the challenges in the oil and gas industry which has been traditionally male-dominated, with few women ascending to top management positions. Elohor Aiboni a “dynamic person with a strong sense of business priorities,” is one of few women to change the narrative, becoming leader of the multinational oil company Shell’s offshore business in Nigeria.
No wonder, she describes herself as “self-motivated with great ability to work easily without supervision. Result-oriented showing a sense of urgency and can challenge positively. Very good communicator with a strong sense of business priorities.”
Also “Elohor’s appointment is a product of diligence, competence and commitment to the Shell ideals and core values, amidst our strong focus on diversity and inclusion,” according to Marno de Jong, Shell’s Senior Vice President for Nigeria adding that, “We take pride in our intention of being one of the world’s most diverse and inclusive organisations, and focus on further improving inclusion and representation in critical areas, including gender.”
A great patriot and an astute engineer of repute, Elohor Aiboni will in May 2024 be representing Shell and Nigeria at a global stage at the 2024 Offshore Technology Conference and Exhibition, (OTC), scheduled to hold May 6-9, 2024 in Houston, Texas, USA.
As one of the OTC featured speakers, she will be part of the Leaders who will discuss and dissect the Industry’s most pressing topics and revolutionary technologies. OTC also focuses on the technologies and innovations needed to continue to provide the world’s energy needs while helping create a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable future for all.
It is expedient to note that Offshore Technology Conference is a landmark, the world’s largest energy conference for the world, a meeting with a global reputation, and one of the few top world-class conferences and gatherings of influential leaders, policymakers, buyers, sellers, experts and media held annually at a global level in the international industry Calendar.
She is clearly, one of the leaders in the nation’s oil and gas industry, who has distinguished herself not only as a dynamic administrator, seasoned leader, and technocrat but also shown a high degree of integrity and transparency in both private, religious, and public affairs.
Her ingenious, creative, pragmatic and resilient approach to leadership has brought a lot of transformation to the SNEPCo as she superintends its deep-water subsidiary in Nigeria.
From the onset, Elohor was clear on her priorities – developing people and growing the business. “It is my responsibility and one that I take seriously. I aim to lead by example and drive inclusive leadership in a way that will encourage and empower our future leaders as they grow to take up more leadership roles and support one another to safely outperform,” she said.
Elohor’s capability and commitment have guaranteed the achievement of noteworthy milestones in her moderately short tenure. The biggest one being when Nigeria’s first deep-water exploration and production vessel, Bonga, hit a 1-billion-barrel oil export mark in February 2023.
She was incredibly proud of all SNEPCo employees and contractors and commended them for the success of the Bonga FPSO and the attainment of the remarkable achievement.
She expressed that SNEPCo-operated Bonga, Nigeria’s first deep offshore Floating, Production, Storage, and Offloading vessel, is more than oil and gas. It has advanced the frontiers of deep-water technology in the country, empowered Nigerian contractors, and positively impacted lives across the country.
Interestingly, Global oil major Shell Plc said it made total payments of US$4,929,307,556 to the Nigerian Government in 2023. Shell revealed this in payments to governments where it operates, which is part of its 2023 Sustainability and Payments to Governments Report published. This is in addition to more than $20 million that was remitted to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) within the same period in compliance with statutory requirements.
The social benefits of SNEPCo to Nigerians beyond oil and gas revenues are of importance to Elohor as she balances technical deliverables with social performance in the two focus areas of the company – health and education.
She recalls that among the many projects delivered with support from its senior partner, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd), SNEPCo built and equipped a 100-seat ICT Centre at the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun Delta State, while work is in progress on a $5-million e-library at the Niger Delta University in Bayelsa State.
In addition, a $10-million Geosciences Centre of Excellence is under construction at the University of Lagos. The company’s scholarship schemes have provided opportunities for thousands of Nigerians to acquire secondary, university, and postgraduate education.
Speaking on the health side, SNEPCo, with the support of NNPC and in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health, implemented a capacity-improvement project for cancer treatment at the National Hospital, Abuja, which reduced the cost of cancer treatment from $10,000 to $2,000 with waiting time now less than two weeks from the previous six months.
The project involved the installation of a state-of-the-art Linear Accelerator radiotherapy machine at the hospital. SNEPCo has also built and equipped health centres, including a pediatric facility, in different parts of the country and has donated medical equipment, ambulances, and a mammogram machine to hospitals.
As a pragmatic and adventurous engineer, Aiboni has many firsts to her credit — from being the first female asset operations manager in SNEPCo to being the company’s first female MD.
As asset operations manager, Aiboni was responsible for providing leadership in health, safety, and environment (HSE), operational excellence, and overall asset management of the Bonga deepwater floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel operated by Shell in Nigeria.
Aiboni was appointed as the first female MD of SNEPCo while the Bonga FPSO vessel has a total production capacity of 225,000 barrels of oil per day and 150 standard cubic feet of gas export per day.
The height of a 12-story building, and spanning an area the size of three football fields, the FPSO explores for and extracts oil from more than 1,000 metres below sea level.
She has over 20 years of working experience in Shell. Aiboni joined the oil company as a trainee production engineer and gradually rose through the ranks over the years.
“Immediately after I completed the compulsory national youths service, there came the opportunity to sit the Shell Intensive Training Programme examination. I made it, and that’s how I got into the prestigious SITP school. After a year of hard work and successful interviews, I transitioned to an employee as a Trainee Production Engineer about 19 years ago,” Aiboni disclosed in an interview with DMG Events – a global energy show
A chemical engineer by background, Elohor has blazed the trail in the oil and gas industry since joining Shell in 2002. Among other roles, she served in production operations, project and asset management as well as operations readiness and assurance.
She also managed third-party interfaces across several Shell assets in Nigeria and Kazakhstan.
She holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Benin and a Master’s degree in Integrated Environmental Management from the University of Bath, UK. She is a Fellow at the Energy Institute (EI), the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers (FNSChE) and the Nigerian Society of Engineers (FNSE). Elohor also sits on several boards in the oil and gas sector including the Women in Energy, Nigeria (WIEN).
She is passionate about developing talent and leads a diverse team that strive to simplify work processes and pursue continuous improvement. Her leadership of the Bonga team has seen the Asset receive numerous awards, including the CEO HSSE Awards, Upstream Impact Award, and the Asset of the Year Runner-up in 2019, in the Shell Group.
Her interests include watching football, lawn tennis, listening to soothing music and traveling.
The unique and exciting story of SNEPCo deep-water operations has continued to be a motivation and inspiration in the industry within and outside Nigeria. From the side-lines, one can see an auspicious company under a focused and vision-minded Elohor who is irreversibly dedicated to the quest of distinction to build a foremost, innocuous, and cost-disciplined business that brings value to SNEPCo, its associates, stakeholders and Nigeria which remains a core for the Shell business.
Culled from Champion newspapers
