
Ensuring safety for all
What does it take to work 4 million hours without a single injury? Team members from the Bonga North West project, which is producing oil and gas from deep below the ocean’s surface off Nigeria, reveal the strong culture behind their safety success.
In the dark blue seas of the Gulf of Guinea, 120km from the Nigerian coast, one of the world’s largest floating production, storage and offloading facilities, is tapping into new oil and gas resources from the Bonga North West deep-water project, which came on stream in August 2014.
Oil from the Bonga North West subsea facilities is transported by a new undersea pipeline to the existing Bonga floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility which began producing oil and gas in 2005. This FPSO facility is 300 metres long, about the same length as three football pitches, and can produce 200,000 barrels of oil and 150 million cubic feet of gas a day from beneath the seabed, helping Nigeria to become a major offshore energy producer.
Safety comes first
Safety is priority number one – everywhere from the existing production facility out at sea to the assembly yard where the Bonga North West project came to life, and the offices where the project was first proposed.
Jonathan Peters was one of around 300 Nigerian engineers and technicians who worked on Bonga North West. Over the course of four years, he and his fellow workers spent 4.16 million working hours on the project, without injury. They produced the first oil from the new wells three weeks ahead of schedule in August.
Jonathan is a workshop technician and assembler for FMC Technologies Nigeria, one of five companies* who were awarded major contracts by Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo) to design and build Bonga North West. It was his job to assemble and test advanced equipment that operates on the seabed at a depth of 1,000 metres.
He joined the firm in 2011 and was impressed by the safety culture that SNEPCo had instilled in employees and contractors alike.
“Here, safety comes before everything else,” he said.
Jonathan attended weekly safety meetings throughout his involvement in the project. He took part in regular online safety tutorials and learned always to intervene if anyone breaks a safety rule.
Creating lasting benefits
“We had to overcome many challenges and establish strict procedures to reach our target of zero incidents,” says Tersoo Gwaza, safety and environment lead for offshore engineering projects at SNEPCo.
All local contractors were vetted by SNEPCo in the usual way before they were awarded contracts. But they also received support throughout the project to ensure that they could meet and maintain the safety and environmental standards required.
Bonga North West brought a very large team together during millions of working hours to deliver safely a challenging deep-water project. The project has boosted the safety expertise and credentials of each local contractor. Now, it will help them to play a greater role in the future development of Nigeria’s deep-water oil and gas industry.
* The five companies were either indigenous or had a presence or investments in Nigeria. They are FMC Technologies Nigeria, Saipem Contracting Nigeria Limited, Weltek, Aker Solutions, and Invensys/Sidler

Building a strong safety culture
The Bonga North West project focused on flawless worksite safety and rigorous compliance with Shell’s Life-Saving Rules. We take many steps to build a strong safety culture, including:
- undertaking frequent facility inspections;
- holding regular safety meetings at all project levels and worksites;
- identifying hazards and risks and reducing or eliminating their potential impact;
- approving all fabrication activities in advance; and
- assigning site safety and environment supervisors to all fabrication yards and installation vessels.
Staying safe for 4 million hours
Staying safe for 4 million hours – video transcript
How can a team safely deliver a project more than a kilometre below the ocean’s surface? Tersoo Gwaza, SNEPCo Safety and Environment Lead for Offshore Projects, takes us behind the scenes.
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Bonga North West
Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo)
Staying safe for 4 million hours
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Tersoo Gwaza
SNEPCo Safety and Environment Lead
Offshore Engineering Projects
Tersoo Gwaza
It's been exciting... it's been rewarding, and it's been challenging. Exciting in the sense that it gives us opportunities to discover new things and to apply knowledge. Challenging in the sense that we had to manage indigenous contractors and ensure that the safety performance is up to spec and they are able to deliver as required in terms of having people work and not go home injured. So, making sure people go back home safe. And it's also rewarding, and indeed very rewarding, because it gives us an opportunity to hone our skills and develop new skills.
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John Okuro
Engineer FMC Technologies Nigeria LTD
John Okuro
I learnt a lot of things, first and foremost... in everything you do, safety is number one. There is nothing you can do, and do it well, and safely, if you've not put the safety factor into it.
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Jonathan Peters
Engineer FMC Technologies Nigeria LTD
Jonathan Peters
I am a safety officer. I don't have that as a title... but I don't have to wait for a safety officer to come and tell me the right thing to do. Safety awareness, safety consciousness is something that I will take forward anywhere I go in the future.
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Over 4 million hours worked
No time lost due to injury
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© Shell International Limited 2014
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