Journal of Environmental Sustainability

Volume 3 | Issue 3 Article 6

2013

Towards Sustainability in the Oil and Gas Sector:

Benchmarking of Environmental, Health, and
Safety Efforts
Jennifer Schneider
jlwcem, [email protected]

Salim Ghettas
RIT, [email protected]

Nacer Merdaci
RIT, [email protected]

Mervin Brown
RIT, [email protected]

Joseph Martyniuk
RIT, [email protected]

See next page for additional authors

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Recommended Citation
Schneider, Jennifer; Ghettas, Salim; Merdaci, Nacer; Brown, Mervin; Martyniuk, Joseph; Alshehri, Waleed; and Trojan, Anthony
(2013) "Towards Sustainability in the Oil and Gas Sector: Benchmarking of Environmental, Health, and Safety Efforts," Journal of
Environmental Sustainability: Vol. 3: Iss. 3, Article 6.
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Towards Sustainability in the Oil and Gas Sector: Benchmarking of
Environmental, Health, and Safety Efforts
Authors
Jennifer Schneider, Salim Ghettas, Nacer Merdaci, Mervin Brown, Joseph Martyniuk, Waleed Alshehri, and
Anthony Trojan

This article is available in Journal of Environmental Sustainability: http://scholarworks.rit.edu/jes/vol3/iss3/6

Towards Sustainability in the Oil and Gas
Sector: Benchmarking of Environmental,
Health, and Safety Efforts
Jennifer Schneider Joseph Martyniuk
Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Graduate Student
[email protected] [email protected]

Salim Ghettas Waleed Alshehri

RIT Graduate Student RIT Graduate Student
[email protected] [email protected]

Mervin Brown Nacer Merdaci

RIT Graduate Student RIT Graduate Student
[email protected] [email protected]

Salim Ghettas Anthony Trojan

RIT Graduate Student RIT Graduate Student
[email protected] [email protected]

ABSTRACT: The environmental, social and climate change issues that face the world today have
all industries considering how they will address sustainability in the future. The purpose of this paper
is to evaluate the maturity of environmental, health and safety (EHS) efforts and progress toward
sustainability in the oil and gas sector. Ten major oil companies have been analyzed based on public
information including their published annual reports. Companies refer to voluntary initiatives when
reporting their performance yet the assessment suggests that the sector overall continues to make
progress and is maturing in its sustainability efforts. Many management system gaps were found
that leave companies within this sector far from sustainable production and from being leaders
in EHS Management. Most companies are still using lagging metrics and this is reflected in the
activities implemented by companies. The sector’s EHS management status is found to be in the
high middle/medium level of maturity but with significant gaps in performance.. This means
that the sector has made progress from simply embracing sustainability towards a commitment to
addressing sustainability issues, but still has progress to make particularly in compliance with the
Clean Air Act, spill and process management.

Towards Sustainability in the Oil and Gas Sector... 103

I. KEY WORDS Companies in the sector have been reporting their
sustainability efforts - also referred to as “corporate
Environmental Health and Safety Management, citizenship or environmental, social and governance
LCSP indicator framework, Leading and Lagging (ESG) reporting” (IPIECA, API, & OGP 2010).
indicators/metrics, Oil and gas industry/sector, This inventiveness has become an integral part of
Sustainability, Sustainability reporting the way individual companies choose to engage
stakeholders and help foster informed dialogue
II. INTRODUCTION and understanding (IPIECA, API, & OGP 2010).
Of the ten companies examined in this study, eight
The oil and gas sector has grown significantly have membership with The Global Oil and Gas
over recent years, making it important for the Industry Association for Environmental and Social
sector to implement serious changes in the way Issues (IPIECA): British Petroleum, Chevron,
it does business. This sector is among the largest ConocoPhillips, Eni, ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil,
in the world, with increasing revenues and costs Shell Global and Total Oil Company. The other two
necessary to provide customers with the energy companies included in this study are Sonatrach and
that they require in maintaining their style of living Weatherford International. Therefore, our analysis
(American Petroleum Institute 2014). Oil and examines the available information for ten of the
gas operations involve both upstream activities, recognized oil and gas companies. The majority
including all processes before the raw material is of these companies were chosen based upon their
refined; exploration, drilling, extraction, storage, large size and significant potential impact to our
shipping, etc., and downstream activities, which world. Two of these companies (Marathon Oil and
involves the refining, selling and distribution of the Weatherford) were relatively chosen to represent
product. Due to the nature of these activities which the smaller concern, and to show whether regional,
engender high risks, companies work continuously national concerns follow the trends in the major
to reduce the significance of their adverse impacts companies.
on the environment and people (Schneider, Vargo, &
Campbell 2011). The industry has had a checkered Although this paper focuses on the upstream
past, evidenced by high profile issues like the Santa operations, it is important to note that the companies
Barbara oil spill in 1969 in California and Deep engage in all phases of the oil business, which
water Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in encompasses production, transportation, refining,
2010. Further, companies in the sector were behind and marketing. The companies assessed in this
major environmental and human rights controversies study are at varying levels of maturity in regards to
in many regions in the world. In the early of 1990s, sustainability.
the operations of Shell Company in the Niger Delta
in Nigeria resulted in the pollution of the river and Establishing the groundwork for sustainability is a
tensions with local citizens of the Ogoni region. task that will take discipline and commitment from
In 2003, Indigenous residents in Ecuador filed a all stakeholders. One of the ways to successfully
lawsuit against Chevron for the pollution of Amazon implement a sustainability charter is through the
rainforest, and the impact of that on their health. effective reporting of EHS aspects and impacts.
In the last few years, the sector has made steps in While reporting is voluntary, however, membership
advancing toward sustainability. in oil and gas associations creates an expectation

104 Journal of Environmental Sustainability – Volume 3

of public reporting (IPIECA 2014). Furthermore, and related EHS actions to evaluate overall EHS
the IPIECA in collaboration with the International maturity. Note that although GHG emissions are
Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP) one of the major environmental impacts of the oil
confirms that “huge amounts of publicly available and gas sector, these impacts will not be addressed
information are published by oil and gas companies in this paper.
on their environmental and social performance”,
and that the energy sector only lagged behind the III. COMPANY PROFILES
financial services sector in participation in the Global
Reporting Initiative (GRI) (OGP 2012). There are In order to better understand the landscape of the
many organizations that are committed to promoting sector, basic company information and the company
the practice of sustainability reporting, that follows selected actions to address EHS challenges are
the IPIECA, API and OGP Oil and Gas guidance, highlighted in this section.
including the African Refiners’ Association (ARA);
Regional Association of Oil and Gas Companies III.I. BRITISH PETROLEUM
in Latin America and the Caribbean (ARPEL); the
European Association for environment, health and (Based in the United Kingdom, 83,900 employees,
safety in refining and distribution (CONCAWE); net profit =$13.4B) (British Petroleum 2014a)
Canadian Petroleum Products Institute (CPPI); and
the South African Petroleum Industry Association Safety: British Petroleum implemented an operating
(SAPIA) (OGP 2012). There is an inherent need management system that incorporates the company
for guidance on sustainability reporting to drive requirements in terms of EHS, social responsibility,
an industry that builds on the present and secures operational reliability, contractor management,
the future; as such, this paper examines the state of and other relevant issues. Moreover as a result of
EHS Management in this sector .Our methodology the Deepwater Horizon internal investigation, the
seeks to understand whether those companies that investigators recommended 26 tasks to reduce
profess voluntary excellence actually achieve it, and risks and enhance operational safety in drilling
whether policies are reflected in results. Along the activities. By the end of 2013, British Petroleum
way, we also look for trends in word, deed and result had addressed 15 out of the 26 recommendations.
and ask whether the sector is living up to the day to (British Petroleum 2014b)
day operational expectations that we, as a society,
should have for them. Thus, there is a conversation III.II. CHEVRON
about how EHS management systems are conceived
and operationalized in the oil and gas sector. The (Based in the United States, 64,550 employees, net
Lowell framework discerns maturity of the EHS profit= $21.4B) (Chevron 2013):
Management systems. This will be discussed in
greater detail later in the paper. Environment: Chevron had reduced their
greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 0.7 metric
In this study, ten major oil and gas companies’ tons of CO2 per 1,000 barrels at the upstream
sustainability and EHS policies are analyzed. The operations and by 0.4 metric tons of CO2 at the
analysis considered the EHS mission and vision downstream ones in 2012. However, they had
statements, reported metrics and legal compliance recorded 232 spills with a volume of 3,092 barrels

Towards Sustainability in the Oil and Gas Sector... 105

of oil in 2012 and 274 releases in 2011. (Chevron Spill Improvement program (COSPIP) and IPIECA
2013) Thus, they introduced a new certified program West, Central, and Southern Africa (WACAF)
called WELLSAFE to keep well control processes Global Initiative to develop strategies for oil spills
maintained and reduces the number of spills during prevention.
drilling operations.
III.V. EXXONMOBIL
III.III. SHELL GLOBAL
(Based in the United States, 76 thousand employees,
(Based in the United States, 92 thousand employees, net profit =$32.6B) (ExxonMobil 2012)
net profit =$16.7B) (Shell Global 2013):
Occupational Health & Training: In most recent
Environment and technology: The Shell times, ExxonMobil has initiated a new committee
Company has made significant steps to improve for infectious disease to control disease that may
its environmental and technological performance. affect workers and communities such as malaria,
As of 2013, Shell started to use a Green stream dengue fever and cholera particularly in tropical
barge, which uses Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as climate countries. With regards training, the
fuel, to transport diesel, oil, and unleaded petrol to company’s Procurement Sustainability Network
Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. trained more than 200 employees about procurement
(Shell Global 2013) sustainability in 2012. (ExxonMobil 2012)

III.IV. 2.4 ENI III.VI. MARATHON OIL

(Based in Italy, 82,289 employees, net profit=$11.8B) (Based in the United States, 33,647 employees, net
(ENI 2013) profit =$1.75B) (Marathon Oil 2012):

Fatal work-related accidents: ENI has recorded a Emergency Preparedness: Marathon Oil
significant number of fatal accidents involving its developed an internal management system named
staff and contractors in 2011 and 2012. (ENI 2013) Global Performance System (GPS) to enhance its
Subsequently, the company launched the “ENI in EHS and social responsibility performance and
safety” program for the training and awareness of meet regulatory compliance. (Marathon Oil 2012)
its employees and contractors in order to achieve the Although the company has regional and local
zero fatalities target. response teams, it still faces challenges in placing
teams in all the sites. Moreover, they admit struggle
Oil spills and Remediation: Oil spills continued to to implement the recommendations from the
character the operations of the company in Congo, investigations of the past critical accidents in the
Egypt, Nigeria and Algeria in 2012. To face this drilling operations.
issue, ENI plans to improve its emergency response
performance and capabilities. Many remediation III.VII. SONATRACH
activities have been already undertaken especially
in Nigeria for the recovery of hazardous waste. In (Based in Algeria, 59,767 employees, net
addition, the company is engaged in the Coastal Oil profit=$10.36B) (SONATRACH 2010):

106 Journal of Environmental Sustainability – Volume 3

Environmental Impacts: Sonatrach being the III.X. WEATHERFORD INTERNATIONAL
largest oil and gas company in Algeria and Africa,
its exploitation and exploration has had increasing (Based in Switzerland, 67 thousand employees, net
environmental impacts. The biggest priority for profit=$8 B) (Weatherford 2012)
the company is reducing emissions of greenhouse
gases and any other air pollutants. The company has GEMS Project: As the number of recordable
embarked on a campaign to eliminate the majority of incidents continued to rise, Weatherford reviewed
gas flaring since 2010, and significant investments its management system and EHS projects such as
have been made toward this target. Although the the “Getting Everyone Managing Safety” (GEMS)
volume of produced flaring gas has quadrupled in program to improve their safety performance. A
30 years, the ratio of associated flared gas out of new version of GEMS program was introduced to
produced gas has moved from 80% in 1970 to 7% in change the safety culture within the company, and
2007. (SONATRACH 2010) prevent the occurrence of injuries at work by the end
of 2012. (Weatherford 2012)
III.VIII. CONOCOPHILLIPS
IV. ANALYSIS OF EHS CORPORATE
(Based in the United States, 16,900 employees, net POLICIES/VISION/MISSION
profit=$9.2B) (ConocoPhillips 2013):
An EHS policy is the foundation of the whole EHS
Emergency Preparedness: Oil spills are a significant management systems and it specifies the goals
issue for companies including ConocoPhillips, in the that the organization is prepared to undertake with
oil and gas sector. In 2011 there was the 700 barrel commitment to continual improvement, compliance
spill in north China’s Bohai Bay. (ConocoPhillips with laws and regulation, pollution prevention, and
2013) The company advanced trained and capable prevention of injury and illness.
emergency responders and established a Global
Incident Management Assist Team (GIMAT). The authors were able to access the published
policy statements or vision and mission statements
III.IX. TOTAL OIL COMPANY of six out of the ten companies assessed. These
are ExxonMobil (ExxonMobil 2014), British
(Based in France, 97,126 employees, net Petroleum (British Petroleum 2014c), Weatherford
profit=$14.1B) (Total 2012a) (Weatherford 2007), Sonatrach (Sonatrach 2013),
Marathon Oil (Marathon Oil 2012), and Shell
Environment: Introduced in 2009, Total (Shell 2009). These statements show that there
Ecosolutions is a flagship program to promote are commonalities among EHS commitments of
smarter, more frugal energy consumption, by these companies. For health and safety, companies
cutting natural resource use and/or environmental are dedicated to provide a safe workplace by
impact while providing the same level of service. protecting the employees, managing the risks, and
In 2012, Total Ecosolutions products and services communicating the risks to internal and external
avoided 740,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions (on stakeholders. For example, ExxonMobil pledges
the whole life cycle). (Total 2012a) to manage safety by managing operational risks
and respond to emergencies, preventing incidents,

Towards Sustainability in the Oil and Gas Sector... 107

and conduct business safely. BP considers the V. MAPPING E, H & S LEADING AND
prevention of accidents and prevention of harm to LAGGING METRICS/INDICATORS OF
people. With regards to environment, companies SECTOR
seek to make their business activities compatible
with the environment. For instance, Shell envisions Given the corporate policy statements described
the protection of environment, the minimization of above, it is interesting to examine whether the EHS
energy and resource use, and open communication indicators and metrics of performance and related
with general public. Sonatrach also considers actions match the corporate policies. Indicators
environmental stewardship, product compatibility, are measures of corporate impacts and metrics
resource conservation, and communication with report the trajectory of such impacts, whether
the public. Therefore, companies in the oil and gas or not the corporation is progressing toward its
sector have vision and mission statements that focus targets in a particular area. This performance
on reduction and communication of all EHS risks. information is highlighted in the company’s
Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Reports
and in Annual Reports. Companies are adhering
to the consistent recording of some of the more
common metrics such as total recordable incident

Table I: Mapping EH S metrics based on those reported in 2012 Annual Corporate

Responsibility Report for Each Company.

108 Journal of Environmental Sustainability – Volume 3

rate (TRIR), lost-time incident rate (LTIR), oil/ the ten companies. Some companies use various
hydrocarbon spills and the various criteria and metrics to report their performance in a single EHS
non-criteria air emissions. Metrics used by the ten aspect like air emissions and waste management,
sampled companies available in their 2012 Annual whereas other companies do not report any metric
Reports are summarized in Table I. related to these aspects. The metrics that were
frequently reported by most companies within the
It shows that most companies have adopted their sector in their sustainability and annual reports are:
metric reporting standards based on the International Oil Spills, GHG Emissions, CO2/ NOx/SOx/VOCs.
Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Total number of recordable incident rate (TRIR),
Association (IPIECA), the International Oil and Lost-time incident rate/frequency (LTIR), and fatal
Gas Producers Association (OGP) and the American accident rate as illustrated in the Table V.
Petroleum Institute (API) Oil and Gas Industry
Guidance on Voluntary Sustainability Reporting This progress marks the shift in the EHS reporting by
(2010) with additional indicators referenced companies from ensuring legal compliance toward
from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3.1 sustainable production in the sector, however, there
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (GRI 2011). is still a focus on lagging metric reporting, even
There were inconsistencies in metrics reported by within these voluntary initiatives.

Table II: 2012-2013 Reported Common EHS Metrics (per Sustainability Report)

Towards Sustainability in the Oil and Gas Sector... 109

The analysis of reported metrics shows also that with the safety of their processes, and protecting
some companies do not set metrics that reflect the integrity of their physical and human resources,
their vision and mission in terms of accident and as well as the prevention of accidental discharge of
illness prevention or the protection of environment. hazardous and non-hazardous chemicals. Hence,
For example, Sonatrach did not report any EHS companies in the sector have had to spend significant
metric although they stated in their policy that they amounts on trying to manage these issues. For
aim to protect their human and material integrity. example, to deal with oil spills Weatherford spent in
Weatherford did not adopt the full extent of a report 2013 approximately 67 million USD on remediation
to include environmental performance. Furthermore, activities and 2,500 USD as fines and penalties for
the common metrics among the oil and gas non compliance with environmental regulations in
companies studied in this work are primarily lagging the United States (Weatherford 2014). Furthermore,
indicators which would include, but not limited to, process safety is noted as a major concern. Further,
LTIR, TRIR, and GHG emissions. Therefore, more British Petroleum, BP experienced a catastrophic
needs to be done in adopting leading indicators accident in the Gulf of Mexico and resulted in the
for this sector, and this is further discussed in the suspension of operations on 11/28/2012 (OSHA
following section about EHS management maturity. 2012). These EHS issues were behind many
citations and legal implications for the companies
VI. COMMON EHS FINDINGS AND in the sector, and the following section provides
ISSUES IN THE OIL AND GAS SECTOR further details.

Table III provides a synopsis of the major areas VII. COMPLIANCE

that are plaguing this sector. Significant issues
include: emissions, process safety, protecting the Companies working in the oil and gas sector have
environment and personnel, and sustainability. received many citations by the federal agencies in
the United States, due to the noncompliance with
Based on the reported/recorded metrics of oil and the EHS laws and regulations. Due to the lack of
gas companies in this study (British Petroleum data in terms of legal citations internationally, this
2014a; Chevron 2013; Shell Global 2013; ENI analysis will focus only on those issued by the U.S
2013; ExxonMobil 2012; Marathon Oil 2012; agencies while operating in the U.S. The analysis
ConocoPhillips 2013; Total oil 2012a; Weatherford of these citations shows that the violations vary in
2012), it was found that they encountered issues terms of severity and level of enforcement. Serious
Table III: EHS common issues in the oil and gas sector.
EHS management Issues
Environmental management Managing Hazardous and Non Hazardous Waste
Managing air emissions
Spills
Health management Industrial hygiene monitoring
Safety management Energy and Process Control Issues
Training of the workforce (lack of follow up)
Human injuries and incidents

110 Journal of Environmental Sustainability – Volume 3

violations of federal or state standards frequently without a permit. Oil spill incidents are another
result in penalties and lawsuits against companies. growing concern of this sector. It is common for
Table IV summarizes six citations analyzed for companies to be fined for violations as well as be
serious violations of the EHS laws and regulations responsible for clean-up costs.
in the United States between 2008 and 2014. The
information was obtained from public listings There were also serious process safety management
from EPA in the Enforcement & Compliance violations as well as personnel safety citations.
History Online (ECHO) database and in the OSHA Some of the violations included; lock out-tag
Establishment Search database (EPA ECHO 2014; out, emergency preparedness and response, and
OSHA Establishment 2014) operating procedures, industry illness prevention
and respiratory protection programs. For example
A review of citations in Table IV reveals that the in 2012, BP was cited with 70,000 USD for the
most common citation is for non-compliance with violation of process safety regulations in the Horizon
the Clean Air Act. Non-compliance occurs when accident. Similarly, Chevron was fined 2 million
the company does not adhere to the air emissions USD for the violation of the Clean Air Act.
levels prescribed by the EPA or for running facilities

Table IV: EPA and OSHA Citations for Oil & Gas Companies in the U.S. from 2008 – 2014
Violation Date Location Violation Type Penalty amount Standard cited/ Primary
Law & Section
Company: British Petroleum
10/29/2009 Texas City, TX Willful $70,000.00 29 CFR 1910.119(j)(5)
Process Safety Management
of Highly Hazardous
Chemicals
11/30/2009 Texas City, TX Willful $70,000.00 29 CFR 1910.119(d)(3)(i)
Para. A-H
Process Safety Management
of Highly Hazardous
Chemicals
11/28/2012 Houston, TX Suspension $70,000.00 29 CFR 1910.119 (f)(l)(ii)
Process Safety Management
of Highly Hazardous
Chemicals
Company: ConocoPhillips
11/14/2011 Ponka City, OK Serious $5,000.00 1910. subpart D Working
Surfaces
04/20/2010 Rodeo, CA Other $ 5,000.00 5189 F01 A
Process Safety Management
of Acutely Hazardous
Materials
Company: Exxon Mobil
03/14/2011 Baton Rouge, La. Serious $126,600.00 29 CFR 1910.37(b)(4)
Emergency Preparedness

Towards Sustainability in the Oil and Gas Sector... 111

 Violation Date Location Violation Type Penalty amount Standard cited/ Primary
Law & Section
04/04/2013 Baytown, Tx Serious $7,000.00 19100147 D04 I
Control of hazardous energy
(lockout/tag out)
05/15/10 Honolulu Judicial $2.4 million Clean Air Act
Company: Chevron
01/30/2013 Richmond, Cal Serious Willful $70,000.00 3203(a) (2). California
Injury and Illness Prevention
Program
01/30/2013 Richmond, Cal Serious Willful $70,000.00 8CCR 5144(c)(1)(D)
California Respiratory
Protection Program.
01/30/2013 Richmond, Cal Serious Willful $70,000.00 8 CCR 5192(q) (2).
Emergency Response
to Hazardous Substance
Releases.
04/15/2013 Richmond, Ca Formal enforcement $2 million Clean Air Act
Company: Shell Global
02/27/2012 Deer Park, TX Serious $5500 5A0001 OSH Act General
Duty Paragraph
08/14/2012 Anacortes, WA Serious $4500 0670002102 Written
Operating Procedure
Requirements
09/05/2013 Alaska Enforcement action $710,000 Clean Air Act (CAA)
Company: Weatherford International Ltd.
12/30/2011 Pecos, TX Serious $4,000.00 19100304 G05
Wiring design and protection
11/26/2008 Santa Paula, Ca Serious $22,500.00 California General Industry
Safety orders, chap.13,
art.199
09/05/2013 Houston, TX Administrative / $2,500.00 Clean Water Act / §301/402
Formal enforcement
action

VIII. CONTROLS FOR COMMON EHS for the training and competency of the workforce
ISSUES is stressed. Moreover, medical checks, workplace
monitoring, and awareness are the controls used to
Various controls are used by companies to mitigate the prevent occupational illness. Due to intensive air
impact of problems and reduce their frequency. The emissions from the oil and gas operations, companies
intent is to eliminate the root causes of those issues shift from continuous flaring processes and activities
or minimize the exposure of humans to the hazard’s to the on-demand flaring technologies. The below table
sources. The human component is an essential part summarizes the controls implemented to mitigate the
of operations in the oil and gas sector, so importance impact of the common issues in the sector.

112 Journal of Environmental Sustainability – Volume 3

 Table V: Major EHS issues and their relevant controls in the Oil and Gas Sector
EHS Issues Controls
1. Monthly waste analysis plan;
Managing Hazardous and
2. Inspection and audits;
Non-Hazardous Waste
3. Train the workforce.
1. Eliminate continuous flaring processes and replace them with
on-demand flaring technologies;
Managing air emissions
2. Setup controls that capture the co2 and sulfur dioxide
Environment
emissions.
1. Storage of chemicals in free of damage recipients;
2. Provision of secondary containment for tanks and storage
Spills recipients;
3. Emergency preparedness plans for the spills & training of
personnel.
1. Baseline industrial hygiene survey for all activities. To
determine workplace hazardous.
2. Mandatory medical check every year or before resuming work
from an accident;
Health Industrial hygiene monitoring 3. Monitoring and controlling workplace conditions (noise, heat,
etc.);
4. Awareness of employees about specific health issues resulting
from each activity;
5. Use of personal protective equipment.
1. Automation of highly hazardous tasks;
2. Setting up safety barriers on the hazardous parts of the
processes;
Human injuries and incidents 3. Restriction of access into hazardous areas for unnecessary/
unauthorized workers;
4. Training and supervision of workforce;
5. Use of personal protective equipment.
1. Planning a training program that incorporates all workforce in
Safety
individual facilities, and training refreshment
Training of the workforce 2. Implementation of competency assessment program that
(lack of follow up) assess among many things, the effectiveness of training on the
worker’s performance using different methods of assessment
(observation, simulation, written assessment, etc.
1. Safety instrumented systems (engineering),
Energy and Process Control
2. Logout tagout program
Issues (Process safety issue)
3. Training (admin), supervision

on the environment. In the oil and gas business,

IX. EHS MANAGEMENT MATURITY OF companies are held to the highest standard since a
THE SECTOR: catastrophic failure could result in a major disaster.
An EHS policy or mission statement is only effective
Corporations that have the potential for affecting if the company is accountable to it. An indicator of
the environment significantly are held to a higher the integrity of a company’s management system
standard than those that do not have a notable impact is shown by how closely their actions and metrics/

Towards Sustainability in the Oil and Gas Sector... 113

indicators mirror their stated vision, mission and Based upon sufficient available information, four
EHS policy. of the ten companies researched were analyzed to
obtain their maturity level based on their integration
First, it is important to compare key sector policy of their vision and mission with the reported
attributes and goals with the sector’s indicators. For metrics that lead to sustainable production. These
the purpose of evaluating the maturity level of the four companies are ExxonMobil, BP, Weatherford,
companies, they will be classified based upon the and Sonatrach, and are located in four different
Lowell Center for Sustainable Production (LCSP). regions in the world. ExxonMobil is considered a
The five level indicator framework specifies that high maturity company and is one of the leaders in
companies should move from a compliance (level the oil and gas sector. They operate their business
one), and facility level indicators (level two); and within or above compliance in many of its corporate
challenge themselves to incorporate environmental policies. This is based on the company’s continuous
effect (level three), supply chain (level four), and efforts to improve environmental performance,
sustainable system indicators (level five) (Veleva adhering to environmental laws/regulations,
& Ellenbecker 2001). Therefore, level one and applying responsible standards where laws and
two represent a company at a young/low maturity regulations do not exist, within their operations
level. Level three corresponds to a middle/medium and products (ExxonMobil 2012). For example in
maturity, and levels four and five reflect a high environmental actions, ExxonMobil reported that
maturity. they piloted a framework for “characterizing marine

Figure 1: Lowell Center for Sustainable Production Indicator Framework

114 Journal of Environmental Sustainability – Volume 3

environmental sensitivities by prioritizing ecosystem without any substantive efforts to go above and
services within regions of interest.” This initiative beyond the minimal requirements. In addition, their
was used to inform the company among others 2012 Annual report does not report any metrics about
how to further incorporate sustainability concerns their EHS performance other than the reduction in
in their development plans. Also, the company’s the volume of gas flaring, which is not only an EHS
contribution to biodiversity management is a step issue, it also impacts the production output.
in the right direction. In 2013 approximately US $4
million was contributed to biodiversity protection X. CONCLUSION
and land conservation. There was also an indication
that the company has plans to support the economic, Oil and gas companies represent a significant portion
political and social welfare wherever they conduct of wealth among the world’s major industries;
business by managing sustainability issues through however their efforts toward sustainability still
the application of management systems. Based upon require improvement. (Schneider, Vargo, & Campbell
the Vesla framework, BP has a middle/medium 2011). The ten global oil and gas companies that
maturity level. BP’s vision and mission statements were analyzed in this paper shows evidence that
say that they hold safety and environmental differences still exist within the sector as it relates to
excellence in high regard. However, major disasters environment, health, safety, and sustainability, yet
such as the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April the sector continues to make progress. The analysis
20, 2010 and a pipeline break in Alaska on July 16, of vision and mission statements of companies
2011 put the company under continuous scrutiny by proves that they are still working toward reduction
public and regulatory agencies. On the other hand, and communication of all their EHS risks, yet issues
BP is subscribed to the GRI and has a structured do remain. Common EHS issues were identified
sustainability reporting system but BP still lags for the sector include emissions, process safety,
other oil companies in both environment and safety protecting the environment and personnel, and
performance (Mouawad 2010). sustainability. These issues need to be addressed by
companies in order to allow the sector to advance
The analysis shows that Weatherford International towards sustainability.
is a young/low maturity company. They have a
comprehensive vision/mission statement and have Significant noncompliance with the EHS laws and
committed to incident rate (Weatherford 2012), but regulations is common among the oil companies
they fail to report their results or progress. However, located in the United States, despite their ongoing
as they focus seemingly on compliance EHS efforts. The most cited violations were related to
management, little effort is put on sustainability and Process Safety Management and Clean Air Act. In
corporate social responsibility because they do not order to address EHS issues in the sector, companies
subscribe to the sustainability reporting initiatives implemented different controls that vary in type
offered by GRI. between, elimination, substitution, engineering,
administrative, and personal protective equipment.
Sonatrach is also at a low maturity level, although
it has a high production output for its size. The Benchmarking of sustainability reporting remains
EHS mission and vision statement suggests a desire difficult because of inconsistencies in reporting as
to achieve compliance with laws and regulation Schneider, Vargo, and Campbell (2011) also found.

Towards Sustainability in the Oil and Gas Sector... 115

Inconsistencies are reflected in the number and Complete Management Guide to Achieving
the quality of reported metrics (Table II) and the Social, Economic and Environmental
applicable EHS laws and regulations that depend on Responsibility. Sterling, VA; London:
Earthscan, 2007.
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[16] IPIECA. “Annual Review 2013: The
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