Shell Plc has named Elohor Aiboni as executive vice president and country chair for Nigeria, putting a Nigerian in sole charge of the energy major’s operations in the country for the first time since the combined role was created.
Aiboni, currently serving as asset director at Brunei Shell Petroleum, will succeed Marno de Jong, who is leaving Shell after 34 years to pursue an opportunity outside the company, Shell said. The appointment takes effect Aug. 1, 2026.
De Jong took on the Nigeria post in 2020 as senior vice president before the role was expanded to include the country chair title, giving him oversight of all of Shell’s businesses in Nigeria. He joined Shell in 1992 as a project engineer and has since worked across project delivery, engineering, commercial and upstream development in stints spanning the U.K., Venezuela, Nigeria, Australia, the U.S., the Netherlands, Malaysia and Indonesia.
His tenure in Nigeria coincided with a period of heavy investment in the company’s deepwater portfolio. The Bonga field, Shell’s flagship offshore asset, maintained availability levels above target during his leadership, while the company advanced final investment decisions on the HI offshore gas project and the Bonga North development, both central to Shell’s plans to expand gas and deepwater output in the country.
