Sabah Shell committed to helping local communities

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Participants of the #ShellSelamatSampai school outreach programme in Sabah gather for a memento group photo.

THE Sabah Shell Petroleum Company Ltd (SSPC) remains committed towards improving the well-being of the local communities and building human capital through its social investment projects, particularly in providing access to energy, supporting entrepreneurship as well as nurturing interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

In line with its business as an energy company, Shell has undertaken the Access to Energy (A2E) programme in collaboration with local non-governmental partners, Tonibung and Pacos Trust, to provide a continuous supply of electricity from renewable sources for the benefit of those who live without a connection to the electricity grid.

Prithipal Singh

Sabah Shell general manager Prithipal Singh said the A2E programme started as a pilot project at Kampung Sabibingkol in Pensiangan, one of the poorest districts in Malaysia based on per capita income.

The 42 families in this village have very limited access to basic infrastructure and have relied primarily on portable generators that require petrol or diesel that can reach a high of US$1.50 per litre in the district.

In 2017, the Sabibingkol community, Tonibung, and Sabah Shell volunteers, helped establish a hybrid micro-hydro solar grid to ensure continuous sustainable electricity amidst the changing monsoon seasons that affect this region.

He said villagers were trained to perform basic maintenance for the grid to ensure they were capable to sustain the infrastructure for the long term.

Shell volunteers connect the pipes for Kampung Buayan microhydro turbine.

Meanwhile, Prithipal said a socio-economic development centre was established to help the villagers learn new cottage industries through training conducted by Pacos Trust, mostly in farming and producing tapioca-based products, for them to generate income through selling their products in the local market.

“By providing these opportunities to the villagers, children can now do their homework at night, and villagers can have refrigerators to store their food and medicine.

“The general quality of life has improved in the village,” he said in an interview with thesundaypost in Kota Kinabalu.

Shell volunteers erect an electric pole for the Kampung Buayan community.

With results from the pilot project in Sabibingkol, Prithipal said Shell expanded the A2E programme to Kampung Buayan and Kampung Tiku in Penampang, which would benefit 70 families living in the villages.

Since November last year, the communities of Buayan and Tiku have been working together to establish a new microhydro turbine in the Kobulu River. This turbine will be connected to a microhydro turbine established in 2012 for the benefit of the villagers of Tiku by Tonibung.

With the establishment of the new microhydro turbine in the Kobulu River, Tonibung aims to pioneer the first renewable energy grid in Sabah by connecting the two systems, allowing for load-shedding and the sharing of electricity generated between the two villages.

This year, together with members of the communities and Tonibung, SSPC volunteers participated in four volunteer trips to support the connection of hydro pipes and the setting up of electric poles within the villages.

Photo shows the 2018 Sabah LiveWIRE winning entrepreneurs with the judges, and also Kenny Huah (second left) – the finance manager for Sabah Shell.

Since then, the villagers and Tonibung have continuously been working on the construction of microhydro turbine and its associated civil structures.

“The microhydro turbine is expected to complete by the end of this year.”

Prithipal said to date, Shell had invested more than RM 400,000 on the A2E programme in the three villages.

In terms of supporting entrepreneurship, Shell has kick-started the fifth edition of its ‘LiveWIRE’ programme in Sabah this year, with the ‘Bright Ideas’ workshop in Keningau on July 13, followed by Penampang (July 27) and Kota Kinabalu (July 28).

Shell LiveWIRE is an entrepreneurial programme that seeks to unveil potential start-up entrepreneurs in Sabah and Sarawak. It aims to inspire young entrepreneurs to innovate and produce real business solutions that meet today’s socio-economic needs.

Piloted in Kota Kinabalu in 2015, the LiveWIRE programme was introduced to Sarawak in 2016.

Under this programme, the Shell LiveWIRE team selects the best 180 ideas, 90 each from Sabah and Sarawak, to participate in the ‘Bright Ideas’ workshop.

The top 60 ideas will be invited to participate in the ‘Become a Successful Owner Manager’ (BSOM) workshop, where they are required to submit their business plans that incorporate a detailed business model and strategy.

These business plans will go through a stringent assessment which will result in the selection of the best 20 from Sabah (10) and Sarawak (10).

Team ‘Orange Car’ from SM Maktab Sabah with the judges, their teacher and members of Shell in a photo-call.

The 10 entrepreneurs, each in Sabah and Sarawak, then attend a pitching workshop, which ends in them pitching their business ideas to an independent panel of judges; from this, five grand winners in each state will be chosen to receive a RM 10,000 seed grant from Shell Malaysia.

Alongside the seed grant, the winners will also gain mentoring and coaching support from Shell LiveWIRE facilitators for the next three years to empower them on their entrepreneurial aspirations and to assist them in transforming their ideas to full-fledged businesses.

Prithipal said 282 entrepreneurs from Sabah had participated in LiveWIRE over the past four years – 118 of whom had completed the programme.

He said 18 winners from Sabah had benefitted from the seed grant since 2015.

“Last year, we had five winners from Sabah and one of them is in the talks with some of our contractors to be absorbed into Shell’s supply chain.”

As for human capital development, Shell has provided an opportunity for 50 engineering students from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) to participate in the Shell Malaysia’s ‘Industry Immersion Module’ programme, as part of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) that the company signed with UMS last year.

The partnership was formed to collaboratively develop academic exchange and cooperation in teaching and training.

The 10-week programme consisted of simulations of real working environments.

Prithipal said students were given an oil and gas case study where they had to come up with a proposal, calculations and economics aspect on how to develop the field.

“This encourages team-work and critical thinking, and allows the students to get a feel on working with deadlines and making presentations when they graduate.”

Another part of the MoU consists of the appointment of Prithipal as the ‘CEO@Faculty of UMS’, where he would spend time engaging with UMS students through various speaking engagements and career talks, as part of Shell’s commitment towards developing local talent.

With this partnership with UMS, Shell aims to enhance the employability of undergraduates by supporting them towards developing the needed skills and capabilities in preparation to face the working world.

Prithipal added that Shell had also renewed its MoU with TAS Institute of Oil and Gas for another two years, which would enable final-year students to gain experience doing internship at the company’s deepwater operations at Gumusut-Kakap and Malikai.

On the other hand, Shell Malaysia had introduced the #MyGeekMovement in August 2017 to nurture students’ interest in STEM subjects and equip them with the relevant skills and tools to steer them towards becoming future engineers and innovators.

The #MyGeekMovement selected about 225 Secondary One students from 15 schools across Malaysia. These students were given the opportunity to gain hands-on STEM learning, with focus on technology.

This year, ‘Orange Car’ from SM Maktab Sabah emerged state champion of #MyGeekMovement in a competition known as the ‘Sabah #MyGeek-a-thon’, by showcasing their ‘Sustainable Living Systems’ inventions; while ‘VEGA’from SMK La Salle came in second.

‘Orange Car’ and ‘VEGA’ represented Sabah at the national #MyGeek-a-thon competition, which took place at ‘Make The Future Live Malaysia 2019’ in May.

The national champion was Techie Monkey from SMK Bintulu, Sarawak.

Shell is also a passionate advocate of its road safety programme, #ShellSelamatSampai, to create awareness among high risk groups, including primary, secondary and university students.