His Highness Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, commends key oil & gas projects in the Middle East at Shell Impact Awards Ceremony

His Highness Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, was the guest of honor at a high profile award ceremony hosted by Shell at the Jumeirah Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi.

Commenting on the ceremony, His Highness Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan said: “Tonight the Shell Corporation, a giant in global industry, is recognizing and celebrating the success of its joint venture partners in the Middle East. In the United Arab Emirates, we are committed to dealing responsibly with our natural resources for the good of our environment and the economic and cultural prosperity of our people.  We appreciate and support the business goals that Shell and its partners are pursuing to increase reserves and production in a sustainable fashion, to deliver top quartile safety and social performance, to develop and apply new technologies for unlocking resources, and to eliminate wasteful practices and costs.”

The Shell awards ceremony, which highlighted the achievements of the company’s joint venture oil and gas projects in the Middle East, was also attended by His Excellencies Gerard Michels, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UAE and Dominic Jermey, Ambassador of the UK to the UAE, as well as senior officials from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) and other distinguished guests.

“I am particularly proud to be here with our partners in Abu Dhabi where Shell has been present for more than seventy years, and has been an active contributor to the Emirate’s development. These awards celebrate and recognize the region’s successful growth and we are therefore honoured to share them with our partners, present with us today, working together to fulfil Abu Dhabi’s vision 2030,” said Dr. John Barry, Shell Abu Dhabi Country Chairman.

Known as the “Impact Awards”, these awards recognize excellence in oil & gas projects among Shell’s joint-venture partners in the UAE, Oman, Iraq and Egypt, as well as innovative contributions in different areas of upstream oil exploration and production, including capacity building.  The award ceremony also celebrated the achievement of UAE nationals in completing Shell’s globally renowned well engineering training program.  The Impact Awards recognized excellence in five categories: 

The category of Innovation, Sustaining Growth & Reputation was awarded to the team at ADCO who have successfully participated in a well engineering management training program, focusing on developing talented young Emirati drilling engineers, using the Shell Round 1 and 2 courses, considered one of the best in the world. The first batch of four Emirati engineers have successfully completed the highly rigorous undertaking and received their international certification.

In the Social Performance category, the award was given to the team working on the Majnoon oil field, Shell’s joint venture project with Petronas and South Oil Company in Iraq. They were recognized for their role in creating jobs through training local unemployed people from nearby communities, which resulted in the employment of 2500 local staff. Shell is also credited for re-opening the Shatt al Arab waterway – a key waterway in Southern Iraq, which has been closed since the 1970’s.

Through its continued focus on innovation, Shell recognized the Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) team in Oman for their excellence in project delivery as well as developing and applying new technology to unlock challenging resources. The team applied a number of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) processes to raise oil production and extend the life of reservoirs.

Reflecting Shell’s commitment to eliminate wasteful practices and costs, a second team at PDO, in which Shell is a joint venture partner, also won an award for demonstrating their ability to implement LEAN processes, which resulted in direct gains in capacity.

In recognition of operational excellence, a team from Shell and its joint venture partner Badr El Din Petroleum Company (BAPETCO) in Egypt won an award for optimizing production at the Obaiyed Plant in the Western Desert.

Shell has been an active partner in the Middle East’s oil and gas industry for over a century, involved in every stage of the petroleum value chain – from the discovery and production of oil and gas to the distribution, marketing and retailing of oil, gas and petrochemicals. Shell is highly proactive in contributing to the communities of the Middle East, in which it operates, through education and capacity building initiatives that enable job creation as well as through social investment and development activities.