Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), has received an award as “Energy company of the year (2024)” for its Environmental Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility accomplishments.

The award presented by the Nigerian News Direct newspaper, on Friday December 6, 2024, and was received by Manager Communications, Chevron Nigeria and Mid-Africa Business Unit, Victor Anyaegbudike, at a colourful event at the Grand Ballroom of the Oriental Hotel, Lagos.

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The organizers of the award noted that Chevron has implemented the “Protecting People and the Environment” policy, which aims at preventing injuries, illnesses, and environmental incidents. They also referenced that the company has achieved 97% gas flaring reduction in its operations in Nigeria, while implementing waste management and environmental conservation programs.

According to the media organization, Chevron Nigeria has also invested millions of dollars in community development programs, supporting education, health and economic development initiatives that have benefited thousands of people, while ensuring diversity, inclusion, and employee engagement in its business operations.

Receiving the award from the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotosho, Anyaegbudike thanked the organizers for the honour, and reiterated Chevron’s commitment to continue to develop, affordable, reliable and ever-cleaner energy that enables human progress around the world.

The Shell Companies in Nigeria have restated commitment to supporting Nigerian businesses in the quest to grow local content for the domestic oil and gas industry.

The company made the assertion at the recent Practical Nigerian Content (PNC) forum in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, and committed to doing this through contract awards and scaling up of expertise.

Biztellers reports that over 700 oil and gas entities participated in the 13^th edition of the PNC Forum

The four-day conference with the theme “Deepening the Next Frontier for Nigerian Content Implementation” began today and will see the hosts, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and participating companies review progress on the development of Nigerian content pertaining to the implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Development (NOGICD) Act since it was enacted in 2010.

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The Shell companies in Nigeria were the forum with a strong message of support for Nigerian companies, having awarded contracts worth $1.98 billion to the businesses in 2023 in continuing effort to develop Nigerian content in the oil and gas industry.

The contracts, awarded by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo), and Shell Nigeria Gas (SNG) present a three percent increase from the 2022 performance of $1.92 billion.

Business Opportunity Manager for SNEPCo’s Bonga South-West Aparo Project, Olaposi Fadahunsi, representing SNEPCo Managing Director, Ron Adams, told participants at the opening of the forum that several benefitting companies had taken advantage of the patronage to expand their operations and improve their expertise and financial strength.

“Shell companies execute a large proportion of their activities through contracts with third parties, and Nigeria-registered companies have been key beneficiaries of this policy aimed at powering Nigeria’s progress,” Fadahunsi said. He commended the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for ensuring compliance with the Nigerian Content Act.

In addition to contract awards, Shell companies have implemented projects under the Human Capital Development Fund, including the Niger Delta University learning centre and digital library project and the Federal University of Technology Information Technology Hub. Both projects were inaugurated this year, in collaboration with SPDC Joint Venture partners – Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), TotalEnergies and Nigeria Agip Oil Company Limited (NAOC).

Other projects include the University of Lagos Geosciences Centre of Excellence, Nigeria Diving School and funding of ongoing research at the University of Ibadan to develop a synthetic-based drilling fluid.

The Shell Companies in Nigeria also continue to develop indigenous manpower through scholarship programmes with over 3,772 undergraduate and 109 Niger Delta post graduate scholarships since 2016.

Fadahunsi added: “As we speak, beneficiaries of the 13th edition of the Niger Delta Post Graduate Scholarship awards are pursuing their studies in the United Kingdom. The employability rate of the scheme is high with over 98% of the graduates who won the awards securing employment in the oil and gas industry, academia and Information Technology, among other sectors, within one year of completing their studies. Nigerian content will continue to be an important part of Shell operations.”

Local content development has been described as critical for the growth and development of Nigeria in the quest to acquire oil and gas technology and build indigenous capacity in the industry.

Chairman and Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria and Mid-Africa Business Unit, Jim Swartz made this remark at a Panel session on The Next Frontier for Nigerian Content: Divestments & Offshore Opportunities, during the 2024 edition of the Practical Nigeria Content Forum organized by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State from December 2 to 5, 2024.

Swartz noted that as an industry that thrives on partnership with key stakeholders, the Nigerian oil and gas industry is expected to continue to play an active role in prioritizing Nigeria content development and building local capacity in the industry.

He explained that Chevron believes that its business success in providing affordable, reliable, ever-cleaner energy is directly tied to the progress and prosperity of the people it works with and the communities where it operates.

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“Our strategy is to leverage our strengths to safely deliver lower carbon energy to a growing world. Our primary objective is to deliver higher returns, lower carbon, and superior stakeholder value in any business environment,” he stated.

According to Swartz, “having made significant investments in Nigeria for over 60 years, Chevron believes that the broad and varied opportunities in the oil and gas industry, can be harnessed to engender economic development, with the appropriate government legislation, policies, and regulations.

“Chevron’s Nigerian Content policy is driven by the vision to be recognized as the petroleum company that works best to foster competence and competitiveness among Nigerian indigenous contractors and suppliers, by adopting the participatory-partnership model,” he remarked

The Chairman and Managing Director noted that Chevron companies in Nigeria had developed and implemented the Local/Nigerian Content development philosophy as far back as 1999, well before the April 2010 enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act (“NOGICD Act”).

He stated, “At Chevron, we demonstrate our commitment to the socio-economic development of Nigeria by building mutually beneficial partnerships and supporting the policies of government on Nigerian Content Development. In addition to skills acquisition trainings for Nigerians, Chevron provides contract and procurement opportunities, support for asset acquisition, technical support, and facilitates collaboration on research and development for local community contractors.

“For the last 10 years, CNL has spent an estimated annual average of $1 billion on Nigerian suppliers and service providers. We do all this, not because we are compelled to, but because it is the right thing to do,” he remarked.

Swartz affirmed that Chevron would continue to partner with the NCDMB to boost local capacities in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. “We will continue our efforts in capacity building and training of the local talents, our support for research and development and facilitation of partnerships among local businesses”, he concluded.