Safety performance

In 2007, 30 people (two employees and 28 contractors) lost their lives in confirmed incidents while working for Shell (see footnote [C] on the Environmental data table). We are deeply saddened by these losses. Of these fatalities, 17 happened in our upstream business, mainly on the roads, or at high-risk locations like Nigeria, where two lives were lost due to assaults and a third died as a result of a fire caused by criminals stealing oil from a pipeline. A large share of our fatalities have occurred on the road, where we have less control and safety depends even more on the behaviour of individuals. Our fatal accident rate (the number of fatalities per 100 million working hours) improved. It has dropped by nearly two-thirds since 1997. Our injury rate – which has fallen by more than 50% since 1998 – was our lowest ever in 2007. This performance confirmed the importance of the big push we are making to change behaviour by simplifying safety rules and strengthening our safety culture.