Shell v BP Cadetship

[Aquaspeed]

Hello,
My son has been offered deck cadetship with Shell today and is attending an assessment day with BP tomorrow. He is delighted with the offer from Shell. In case he receives an offer from BP as well, the question is what are the pros and cons working for Shell or BP? On what bases he should make his decision?Training and development? Working environment? Career progression?Etc...
Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Lewis McColl]

I was with BP for 10 years , if your lad has the get up and go he will not go far wrong with BP, concerning Shell I cannot offer an opinion. BP shipping are an expanding company and have on order or just received 25 new ships from 2015 to the current day. BP cadets are deemed to be the cream of the croc. BP have an excellent attitude concerning talented sea staff, and will actively encourage those, who want to come ashore to enter the office and follow a career path, most who do go on and enjoy a new challenge.

[Aquaspeed]

Thank you for your input Lewis. Definitely there is no doubt about the BP's reputation and standards. Unfortunately there is not much info i can find regarding working for Shell as an officer. Hopefully someone who had experience with Shell will be able to shed more light. I am looking into differences/similarities in working culture, environment, any particular benefits working for Shell/BP? I am aware that BP employs mainly brits, what about Shell?
They are both great companies, that is why it is so difficult to choose between them. Shell is more into liquide gas, i understand, does it put them into advantage over BP on the long term?
Looking forward for further contributions from knowledgeable folks on this forum.

[John Albert Evans]

Whichever your son chooses I wish him good luck for his future at sea. I sailed with Shell for a couple of years but that was in 1960's in the catering department. I enjoyed my time with them. I wish him all the best as no doubt a lot of others on the site feel the same.

John.

[cappy]

###sailed with BP in the 50s...11 months on the indian coast a bad feeder....the food coming aboard was not good ...and the water constantly affecting the stomach ....no air con all hands wearing longis and sleeping on deck .......sailed with joe shell a great run curacao ...venezuela...buenos aries plenty braziliam steaks air con ......but also joined a BP tanker brtish faith......top food top accom......but have had good trips and bad trips ...mainly it was the crowd aboard that made it .......but if i was to take a guess today.....they would both be about the the same .....bp seemed to be up the gulf mainly and joe shell better ports in general ......it is a different world now ....but i wish him all the luck .......fair winds and a following sea to him ....regards cappy

[Keith at Tregenna]

BP family wise, cannot advise on Shell.

K.

[Lewis McColl]

During my 10 years with BP I was mainly on LNG gas Carriers, yes did go up the gulf but mostly I was trading out of Trinidad. The BP fleet does have a lot of Indian manned ships but to the best of my knowledge they are fully Indian manning on those ships they do not mix them up.. They are also partners in CLISCO the Chinese company, NWSSC which is an Australian operated venture carrying LNG from Western Australia to Japan.

here is the link to BP shipping Our fleet | BP Shipping. Shell had a terrible reputation for failing to relieve there staff on due date, some lads ended up doing a double header.

here is the Shell link. Access Denied

Shell operate a very old fleet of ships were as there is only one ship in the BP fleet over 10 years old and that is The North west Shearwater. If it were me I would sign up with BP as personally I would not be wanting to be running out of Nigeria , NLNG-Class (LNG)
The NLNG class of liquified natural gas (LNG) carriers are managed by Shell, but jointly resourced with Nigeria LNG (NLNG) Limited's officers. Shell is in the process of training NLNG officers and crew to take over the day-to-day manning of these vessels as part of a nationalisation programme.
These vessels*carry on average 135,000 cubic metres of LNG from Nigeria to Northwest Europe.
The class includes "LNG Bonny" (pictured here). One thing in BP's favour is at least they can keep their website up to date.

[Aquaspeed]

Thanks Lewis, very useful information, still trying to find out about Shell's present fleet, how old it is , if there are new ones in the pipeline. lots of uptodate info on BP, unlike Shell, that's definitely true. So far BP looks better. Any inside info from Shell officers please?