Sustainability at Shell
Sustainable development goals
About our data
Energy transition and climate change
Our business partners
Shell often work in joint ventures with national and other international energy companies. Our business partners bring important skills and experience to a joint venture.
Non-operated ventures
More than half of Shell’s joint ventures (JVs) are not operated by Shell. For these ventures, our Shell JV representatives and the Shell-appointed member(s) of the JV board require our partners to adopt the Shell commitment and policy on health, safety, security, environment and social performance (HSSE&SP) or one materially equivalent to our own. They are also required to put in place standards to adequately address HSSE&SP risks.
When these JVs implement our control framework, or a similar approach, Shell teams carry out independent audits or participate in the JV's own auditing programmes. This provides assurance on the JV's compliance. We also offer to review the effectiveness of the framework’s implementation, overseen by the JV’s board of directors.
We periodically evaluate the health, safety, environment and community risks of the JV. If the JV is falling below expectations, plans will be put in place, in agreement with the other partners, to improve performance.
In 2017, we connected 159 community liaison officers and experts in social performance in operated and non-operated ventures with contractors via a virtual platform. This network aims to share knowledge and discuss challenges and holds regular teaching sessions focused on respectful engagement with communities close to our operations. This also enabled our business leaders to share their priorities and ensure contractors comply with standards of behaving in a socially responsible way.
We also continued to work with our partners on how to adopt the Shell greenhouse gas (GHG) and energy management process. For example, we supported Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP, Shell interest 50%) to assess its GHG emissions to a reasonable level of assurance. We ran GHG and energy management workshops with other ventures such as Petroleum Development Oman (PDO, Shell interest 34%), Badr Petroleum Company in Egypt (Bapetco, Shell interest 50%) and Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. (KPO, Shell interest 29%). These workshops helped to identify opportunities to improve their GHG emissions management.
An important part of our efforts to keep JV staff, contractors and communities safe is our focus on a culture of road safety. In 2017, PDO worked with the police and the Oman Road Safety Association to raise awareness about safe road behaviour. The initiative was launched in 2013 and has so far reached about 8,000 customers. In the city of Salalah, for example, the campaign focused on promoting safe driving habits, including respecting speed limits, not using mobile phones while driving and wearing seat belts at all times. The campaign featured in Shell service stations and at a police road safety exhibition with various interactive and educational activities.