By Emmanuel Nduka
Shell Petroleum has announced the appointment of Mrs Elohor Aiboni, as the Managing Director of its Nigeria deep-water business, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCO).
This was disclosed by its Media Relations Manager, Mr Bamidele Odugbesan, on Sunday in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
Her appointment is sequel to the oil and gas firm’s recent announcement that it was divesting from its onshore and shallow waters operations to concentrate on deep offshore business.
Elohor is the first female to lead the Shell exploration company in more than six decades of Shell’s operations in Nigeria. She succeeds Bayo Ojulari, who retired on July 31, after five years as SNEPCo’s MD, having served the Shell group for more than 30 years.
Until her new appointment, she was the Bonga Asset Manager responsible for overseeing end-to-end production delivery for Nigeria’s pioneer deep-water Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, Bonga, which had produced over 900 million barrels of oil since the beginning of its operations in 2005.
“Elohor’s appointment is a product of diligence, competence and commitment to the Shell ideals and core values, amidst our strong focus on diversity and inclusion.
“We take pride in our intention of being one of the most diverse and inclusive organisations in the world, and focus on further improving inclusion and representation in critical areas, including gender,” the statement quoted Marno de Jong, Shell’s Senior Vice President for Nigeria as saying.
Odugbesan also said that Elohor now joins over 300 women in senior leadership positions in the Shell Group, representing more than 31 per cent of the company’s executive positions.
“Her 19-year career in Shell has seen her move from a field engineer to several roles in production operations; project and asset management; operations readiness and assurance.
“She was at a time the Business Adviser to the Executive Vice President for Shell Sub-Saharan Africa, and had also managed third-party interface across several Shell assets in Nigeria and Kazakhstan.
“Prior to her role as Bonga Asset Manager, Elohor led production delivery for shallow offshore as Asset Manager for Sea Eagle FPSO in Nigeria’s Niger Delta.
“Elohor holds a master’s degree in Integrated Environmental Management from the University of Bath, UK, and a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Benin, Nigeria.
“She is passionate about developing talent and leads a diverse team that strives to simplify work processes and pursue continuous improvements.
“Her leadership of the Bonga team had seen the asset receive numerous awards, including the CEO HSSE Awards, Upstream Impact Award, and the Asset of the Year Runner up in 2019, in the Shell Group,” the statement added.
