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Our approach to safety

We take a systematic approach to managing safety and preventing incidents - such as spills, fires and accidents - that place our people, our neighbours, the environment and our facilities at risk. This starts with applying clear Shell-wide standards and management systems.

Fireman at Bukom refinery putting on his helmet for a drill test

We require all Shell companies and contractors, as well as joint ventures (JV) we control, to manage safety in line with our Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) commitment and policy, or materially equivalent policy. This includes a commitment to do no harm to people and the requirement to apply an effective risk-based management system. In JVs we do not control, we encourage the JV to apply an HSE commitment and policy materially equivalent to our own.

Our Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) Management System provides a framework for managing HSSE at our locations worldwide. This ensures that we manage safety systematically and have the right resources, skills, tools, standards and procedures in place. For example, the HSSE Management System includes our Road Safety and Asset Integrity standards.

In many locations, we provide training to help contractors and suppliers build the systems and skills they need to comply with our standards. For example, we have a dedicated team to review and mentor contractors and suppliers in China. The team screens suppliers and contractors and helps them understand and follow our HSSE standards.

Read more on our HSE policy and commitment and our subject specific standards

Personal Safety

Personal safety means that our people follow the rules and work safely. We are working to prevent accidents by introducing simpler and clearer safety policies that are easier for employees and contractors to understand and follow. Improving safety on the road continues to be a focus for us as road accidents account for a large share of our fatalities.

Process Safety

Process safety means making sure our facilities are well designed, safely operated and properly maintained. We continued implementing our new company-wide process safety standards in 2008. They set out clear rules on how to design and maintain complex installations like refineries, chemical plants and oil and gas production sites. Our upstream business also finished a three-year long assessment of its facilities. Internal independent auditors reviewed sites in over 2,000 locations – from small pumping stations to large gas processing plants – to see how well equipment was being maintained. By the end of 2008, we had completed nearly three-quarters of the changes the review identified and closed out all of its high-risk findings.