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Nigeria Should Lobby for Shell Onshore To Continue Operations

Nigeria Should Lobby for Shell Onshore To Continue Operations

Shell Onshore is exiting Nigeria even as it leaves it deepwater operations and integrated gas businesses intact: “Shell has reached an agreement to sell its Nigerian onshore subsidiary The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) to Renaissance, a consortium of five companies comprising four exploration and production companies based in Nigeria and an international energy group. Completion of the transaction is subject to approvals by the Federal Government of Nigeria and other conditions.”

As an undergraduate student in FUTO, I did an internship in Shell Flow Station in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, and it was an unforgettable technical experience. Besides the “eat as much as you want” in the canteen [the best part of the internship!], it was an initiation into engineering excellence.

I understand the challenges of operating onshore with kidnapping and other vices, I wish Shell would still be operating onshore. The deep technical manpower we have in Nigeria today, in our oil and gas sector, would not have been possible without companies like Shell. Yes, check all the indigenous oil and gas services firms in Nigeria, most of their leaders began their careers in international oil and gas companies like Shell. So, we cannot afford for these firms to exit, especially the onshore business, where to a large extent women get to experience the industry (when I was in the flow station, there was not a single woman there, and that was even onshore. At the deepwater facility, that imbalance may still be there in the industry).

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So, Nigeria, try to keep Shell, and if you cannot keep it, work out a plan to ensure Shell technical excellence remains available in Nigeria’s onshore business. Sure, it is business but it cannot be all about money. (Just writing: this is already dotted in Europe for it to have been announced.)

Shell Announces Sale of Nigerian Onshore Subsidiary to Renaissance Consortium for $1.3 Billion


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