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Joint statement by UKOOA's president and the chairman of the sustainable development strategy group Striking the Right Balance Developing this strategy is an important milestone for our industry. Sustainability is an integral part of the shared vision developed with government during 1999 from the work of the Oil and Gas Industry Task Force (OGITF). Formulating a sustainable development strategy for the upstream oil and gas industry is a natural progression from that vision. In this document, we take first steps as an industry to define our interactions with, and responsibilities to, society at large and to articulate our ideas of how we can apply sustainability principles to our business. Businesses today are much more than mere economic entities. Successful businesses generate jobs, create new technologies, return profits to shareholders and contribute to the economic health of the nation and, of course, we aspire to that success. We recognise and acknowledge, however, that our businesses are part of and deeply intertwined with the wider world - a concept that is becoming increasingly clear as business becomes more global and the world seems to grow ever smaller. Our business success depends on winning and keeping the trust and good will of our many stakeholders - employees, suppliers, shareholders, end customers, communities and, ultimately, those with whom we share this planet. Like any relationship, that requires good communication, mutual understanding, honest endeavour and recognition of shared benefits. The oil and gas industry has brought many benefits to our lives. Our commodities underpin modern society, supplying energy to power industry and heat homes, fuel for transport to carry goods and people all over the world and the raw materials from which derive many items in everyday use. Our business employs hundreds of thousands of people and makes a major contribution to the UK economy. Yet, our industry is extractive in nature, focuses on a finite resource and produces a commodity that is increasingly viewed as a source of pollution. Our responsibility and challenge is to find a way to balance these considerable economic and social benefits with good stewardship of the world's natural resources and environmental care. That is the essence of our industry's contribution to sustainable development. In developing this document, we have subjected our industry to some close scrutiny and identified certain challenges - how, for example, to align sustainability principles with an extractive industry; how to respond to the public perception that use of our products is environmentally damaging, and how to make our highly technical and financially complex business accessible to all our stakeholders. We have tried to address these challenges and discovered in the process that there is much which we already do well that will provide a platform for the performance improvements which we are committed to make. We believe that an extractive industry can indeed be managed according to sustainability principles and have dedicated a section to this challenge under the heading 'Stewardship'. We have also taken some first steps towards examining the full life cycle impact of the materials we produce, both to place this in its proper context of industrial activity and natural processes, and to improve performance. In delivering this strategy, we are making commitments to a range of actions that require targets to be set and performance measures to be devised to guide and validate planning and delivery. We are pleased that our diverse membership - 30 member companies with quite different operations, structures, cultures and, sometimes, priorities - have joined in what has been a truly collaborative process to produce one of the first sectoral sustainability strategy documents in the UK. Many people have contributed to this task from within the industry and beyond and we thank them all for their help. A broad consultation process has involved employees, contractors and suppliers, government, NGOs and the wider stakeholder community to gather broad ranging views on the concept of sustainability, what it means for the oil and gas industry and our proposed actions. Naturally, while extensive, this process was not all-inclusive and we will be pleased to receive feedback from all readers - the final page gives details of how this may be done. Sustainable development is not about quick fixes, but requires striking the right balance for the long term. Since its beginning in the 1960s, the UK's oil and gas industry has adapted to many changes, continually remodelling itself to respond to the challenges of price volatility, dynamic global conditions, maturity and changing perceptions within society. It is a long term industry with a long life ahead. In producing our strategy for upholding sustainability, we have tried to create a living document that will develop over time, allowing us to map a way forward that is vital, clear, accountable and which truly strives to strike the right balance.    Bob Connon Managing Director Chevron Europe Chairman, Sustainable Development Strategy Group    John McDonald Managing Director Texaco North Sea UK President, UK Offshore Operators Association