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Wael Sawan

Chief Executive Officer, Shell

Search every verified Wael Sawan interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. On September 29, 2026, Wael Sawan spoke at an event in Vancouver alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney and other officials to highlight LNG Canada’s decision to proceed with the Phase 2 expansion at its Kitimat, British Columbia export terminal. Sawan described the project as building on an eight-year-old investment and said Phase 2 would double production capacity, create opportunities for British Columbia and First Nations, and strengthen Canada’s role in the global energy system. He also noted that recent global events had shown reliable, diverse energy sources cannot be taken for granted, citing LNG Canada’s support for Asian customers when Middle East supplies were disrupted, and projected global LNG demand growth of around 65% by 2050. In a September 23, 2026 podcast interview with T. Rowe Price, Sawan discussed his strategic priorities as Shell CEO, emphasizing greater discipline around performance and capital allocation. He described the coming decade as one of “energy addition” rather than substitution, saying Shell focuses on energy forms and value chains where it has a competitive advantage. He also said he has never accurately predicted oil prices, attributing the difficulty to geopolitics, changing industry demand, and natural events, and explained that Shell approaches oil price forecasting by considering the marginal cost of bringing a barrel to market.

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Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“Recent global events have shown that reliable, diverse sources of energy cannot be taken for granted. LNG Canada has already demonstrated its strategic value by supporting customers in Asia when supplies from the Middle East were disrupted. Phase 2 will create further opportunities to meet rising demand for global LNG, which is expected to grow by around 65% by 2050 as customers seek the versatility, flexibility, and”

“Eight years ago this month, we came together to announce an historic investment in British Columbia. Our ambition was bold to connect Canadian gas from the Montney through a 670 kilometer pipeline crossing two mountain ranges to a new LNG facility in Kitimat and from there to customers in Asia. Delivering that ambition required an extraordinary collective effort. The capabilities of our joint venture, the expertise o”

“I'd start by freely admitting that I have never, ever gotten the oil price prediction right. I mean, I have been horrendous at it. And that's partly because I think what sits in oil price is so difficult to predict. The geopolitics, the changing nature of the industries that are using our product, and, of course, just natural events. As we look into the future, the way we think about oil price is what is the marginal”

“I think we start by developing our own view of the energy system. And what we see in the energy system is while a lot of people talk about an energy transition, we're really much more in the space of energy addition, at least for the coming decade. Right. This is an addition game. It is not a substitution game yet. And so a lot of what we're focused on is what are those energy forms and the parts of the value chains ”

“Policies need to be long-term that bring you stability and fiscal certainty irrespective of what government we speak to. My plea is always create an environment that your investors know what to expect irrespective of the cycles that will inevitably play out. It's important to continue to recognize that as countries like the UK are rightly going after low-carbon solutions, renewables as much as possible, oil and gas w”

“It has been remarkable to see how resilient the energy system has been. If you'd asked me four or five months ago would I have expected this? I would honestly not have said yes. So it has been very very resilient but think of it as a shock absorber that is weakening. That's what we're seeing at the moment. The elements of the energy system that have acted as that shock absorber that's commercial inventories are slowl”

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