Striking a Balance Index

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5. Key processes supporting the delivery of our contribution to sustainable development Our Strategic Objective To develop and update regularly the industry's sustainable development strategy, within the framework of our partnership with government, informed and influenced by an ongoing engagement with stakeholders and by sharing best practice within the industry. We will monitor and regularly report on performance. Context While some individual companies have developed their own sustainable development strategies, this is the first time this exercise has been carried out by the UK oil and gas industry as a whole. Progress to date: achievements and difficulties encountered The development of partnerships - within the industry, with government The increasing use of risk and reward styles of contracting, the CRINE (Cost Reduction in a New Era) initiative, and its successor CRINE Network, all set wholly new ways of working during the 1990s, bringing oil and gas companies, contractors and suppliers closer to one another. The Step Change in Safety initiative, launched in 1997, brought operators, trade unions, offshore contractors and the Health & Safety Executive together in a joint safety forum. The Oil & Gas Industry Task Force established in 1999 and its successor, PILOT, formed in 2000, created a ground-breaking partnership between government and industry at the highest levels in response to the special challenges facing the UK oil and gas sector due to maturity of the province, high operating costs and global competition for investment. Improving communication, consultation and external engagement These new ways of working have enhanced communications across the board and led to a greater understanding of all parties' aspirations and difficulties in a challenging business climate. Better relationships have been forged with the unions among UKOOA members and contractors' organisations and, since the middle of 1999, regular consultative meetings have been held between government, NGOs and the industry. Individual company reporting A substantial majority of our members, accounting for almost all oil and gas production from the UKCS, already regularly report emissions and discharges resulting from their operations and these are published in paper form and, usually, on the web. Some of these reports are UK specific and some are set in a wider, international context. Companies are also increasingly developing their own sustainability strategies, many of which will cover more than the UK. Sustainable Development Action Plan Creation of Sustainable Development Indicators, Targets and an Annual Review Mechanism We will develop a set of numeric and qualitative indicators to help us measure our industry's sustainable development performance. We will assess in which cases a targeted approach is useful in driving future performance and develop an annual review process to monitor performance against our plans. Some initial indicators have been established and are included in this document. With the benefit of new learning and reviewing new and updated data, we aim to produce a more complete sustainable development scorecard by end of 2001. Annual Reporting on Sustainable Development Issues with Publication of an Integrated Industry Sustainable Development Report We will produce an annual industry sustainable development report beginning with 2001 (along with a website version), documenting progress in each area of the Action Plan, including the attainment of milestones and achievements against targets. Upstream Industry - Government Partnership The Oil and Gas Industry Task Force Report "A Template for Change" set out a vision for the industry for 2010 and some long term aspirational goals to guide industry and government efforts. We remain committed to the partnership with government initiated by OGITF and continued through PILOT, and to the realisation of OGITF's long-term goals - developing this strategy was one of them. Stakeholder Engagement We re-affirm our commitment to engage with the immediate supply chain and with trade unions, through the Industry Leadership Team (ILT), and with environmental NGOs through the Offshore Forum - a tripartite body involving industry, government (DTI, DETR and the Scottish Executive) and NGOs. We plan to extend this engagement to other sectors of society such as local authorities (see action points in social section below). Sharing Best Practice within the Industry The oil and gas industry is a highly competitive industry. Competition has been a driving force behind the enormous and continual advances in technology the industry has experienced. There are, however, many areas where co-operation drives better solutions and improved performance, most strikingly in the areas of safety and environment. This strategy makes numerous references to sharing best practice within the industry, whether through discussion of experience and lessons learned or the exchange of data for benchmarking. We affirm our commitment to best practice sharing throughout the industry, in non-competitive areas.