CSR Story
SHELL Trinidad & Tobago
Bringing Local Content To Communities
Local Content and the Supply Chain
How do I get into Shell Trinidad and Tobago’s supply chain?
It’s the most common question local businesses have for the energy multinational, which has been working hard to expand and encourage Local Content.
Shell’s efforts to effectively communicate contract-award criteria to interested local contractors took another step forward in August 2018 with its first Supplier Share Fair. Dozens of national and community-based businesses that had previously reached out to Shell were invited to hear plans for upcoming contracts and detailed guidelines for meeting procurement requirements.
Each company attending the fair was paired with a relevant representative from Shell’s Contracting and Procurement department and Business Area in a “Speed Date”, where suitors could ask direct questions about service quality and standards that would enable them to meet Group level compliance requirements. Shell believes that Trinidad and Tobago continues to show a lot of potential in the service industry and the fair was a means of testing and registering local service providers.
Shell had already been holding quarterly workshops with local community suppliers to support them in understanding and completing contract-award documents. The process can be daunting for first timers as the industry is heavily regulated and the company must adhere to international standards wherever it operates. “Contracting and Procurement goes through those documents page by page with every interested party,” says Shell’s Community Relations Advisor, Nneka Mentore. The team spends a lot of time outlining exactly what they’re looking for and what a business is expected to attach.
At Shell’s Beachfield, Guayaguayare facility, Shell has been building contractor capacity through strategic partnerships. One such example is that of its experienced Facilities Management partner company which has undertaken to train community contractors, who upon completion can qualify to service Shell or any other operator, in any location.
Shell’s approach is one of mentorship and the aim is to get as many providers as possible to meet global standards for service. The company follows up with bidders through audits of companies that applied for contracts and fell short. “It’s no longer, you lost the contract and you don’t know why,” says Shiron Rodriguez-Marcano, Contracting & Procurement (CP) Team Lead Operational Excellence and Local Content. “The CP team met with all companies that were audited and gave feedback on what one needs to do next to close the gap.”
Mentore says that when comparing oranges to oranges, “Shell always prefers to give a job to a community resident with equivalent skills, over someone who’s not from the fence-line community.”
But Local Content has waxed and waned in national and corporate importance over the past decade, and Shell is introspective enough to acknowledge that it can only be sustained if upstream operators collaborate. “We’ve reached out to other operators and we’ve said, ‘Ok, this is what we’re doing,’” says Rodriguez-Marcano, Team Lead for Operations Excellence and Local Content. “’How do we align together and do one thing for the betterment of Local Content in the country rather than drip-feeding – we’re doing this, you’re doing that?’”
Shell intends to hold its second Supplier Share Fair in October 2019, but this edition will be slightly different, with the company opening its doors even wider via advertising for Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from interested companies. “We saw real value in the last Share Fair,” says Rodriguez-Marcano. “It wasn’t only value for us, it was value for the supplier community as well.”
Mentore supports the view, “One of the things that suppliers and potential vendors want to know”, she says, “is that they have a direct line in with a company, if only to understand the process. People just want to know that there is a window of opportunity to get their voices heard.”
Skills Training with Shell
Youth inclusion and participation in the energy sector is a focus for Shell and yet another avenue for assuring local content in the industry. The company sees it as building capability for country – not just for the company.
Shell T&T’s ‘On the Job Trainee’ (OJT) programme began with some number-crunching. After holding a Mayaro job fair in 2017 where over 800 résumés were received, reviewed and short- listed by Shell’s labour contractor, JSL International.
In the data sorting, JSL found that applications for three positions – drilling fluid operators, mechanics, and electrical technicians – were lacking. Mentore expressed concerns with the findings – “That can’t be. We’ve been in the oil and gas industry for over a hundred years!” It was clear that an intervention was needed.
Filling the gap in future drilling programmes would mean creating a cadre of skilled workers. The response was the creation of the OJT programme. At that time, six carefully selected trainees from Moruga, Mayaro and Guayaguayare were assigned to the Maersk Developer and Rowan Gorilla rigs for two years of mentorship and hands-on experience.
Shawnelle Brereton, the only woman in the group, had come from working six-day weeks in a kitchen, where she hoped for a break that would lead to a new career. “We thank God for placing people here that could help us to grow,” said Shawnelle after her OJT placement. “It was a great opportunity not just to me and for my family, but also to the community.”
Mayaro resident Kyle Felix had been working as an electrician on the Red House restoration project but wanted to follow his cousins offshore. “I came out with a lot more than that,” said Kyle, while feeding livestock and tending to chickens on his family farm. “It actually broadened my mind as to how much machines and mechanical parts go into making a well come into production.” He says the rig experience also taught him patience and improved his communication skills.
Today, all six OJT participants have been offered permanent employment with JSL International and are headed for rig work locally and possibly in Mexico and Guyana.
Shell is revisiting the data from its two-year programme and trying to determine if there has been any change in the skills available in its fence-line communities. “We certainly would like to offer the OJT programme again,” says Mentore. “It worked well. And we were happy with the performance by the six young people.” She believes that there is room for periodic OJT’s when projects permit. For Mentore, this is the kind of investment that has lasting value.
