Local development and global sources
It is important for us to share the benefits of its projects and operations by creating jobs and helping local businesses and economies to develop.
At the outset of a project we consider how we can make the best use of local suppliers and locally-produced materials, where possible. We often introduce local suppliers to global suppliers, which provides both parties with potential new business opportunities and the benefit of shared experience.
Some of these introductions take place in Supplier Forums, which have been held over the last few years in locations such as Nigeria, China, India and Mexico.
For example, in Malaysia we spent a total of around $3 billion in contracts in 2013 across 150 local suppliers. In Nigeria, Shell introduced a new scheme supported by five local banks to assist Nigerian contractors in accessing finance. In 2013, the funding scheme enabled 39 contractors to access loans worth over $700 million.
In Canada, Shell has invested more than $1 billion with aboriginal contractors over six years on the Athabasca Oil Sands Project. This has helped to boost the local economy and develop individual skills. We built the Sakhalin 2 mega project in Russia’s far east, for example, using a workforce which was 70% Russian and with many project materials from Russian firms.
We also buy goods and services in the global market to secure cost competitive, international rates, increasingly through framework agreements. Our approach of selecting primary suppliers of specific goods and services also means the supplier benefits from large orders and we can bring down costs through economies of scale