Sustainable Development Strategy

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, the oil and gas industry aspires to that success. The industry is part of and deeply intertwined with the wider world - a concept which is becoming increasingly clear as business becomes more global and the world seems to grow ever smaller. The success of the offshore industry depends on winning and keeping the trust and good will of many stakeholders - employees, suppliers, shareholders, end customers, communities and, ultimately, those with whom it shares this planet. Like any relationship, that requires good communication, mutual understanding, honest endeavour and recognition of shared benefits.

Since its beginning in the 1960s, the UK's oil and gas industry has adapted to many changes and has continually remodelled itself to respond to the challenges of price volatility, dynamic global conditions, maturity and changing perceptions within society. It invests for the long term and has many years of productive life ahead. Ultimately it will leave a positive legacy behind in the shape of a highly skilled workforce, cutting-edge technology and a world-class supply chain.

A key theme for the offshore oil and gas industry in recent years has been the formulation of an appropriate sectoral strategy for sustainable development. This was an integral part of the shared vision developed with Government during 1999 in the work of the Oil and Gas Industry Task Force, OGITF (now PILOT). Since then, the oil and gas industry has taken steps to define its interactions with and responsibilities to society at large and to articulate its ideas of how to apply the principles of sustainable development to the business.

The oil and gas industry has brought many benefits to our lives. Its 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. The sector employs hundreds of thousands of people and makes a major contribution to the UK economy. Yet, the industry is extractive in nature, focuses on a finite resource and produces a commodity that is viewed as a source of pollution. It must therefore find a way to balance these considerable economic and social benefits with good stewardship of natural resources and environmental care and ability to provide technologies and supply chain capabilities to the broader objective of energy supply with a lower carbon footprint. This is the essence of the industry's contribution to sustainable development.

The sector’s strategy includes a commitment to a range of actions which require targets to be set and performance measures to be devised to guide and validate planning and delivery. It also involves consultation with the total industry supply chain, Government, NGOs and the wider stakeholder community which is designed to gather broad ranging views both on how the concept of sustainable development relates to the oil and gas industry and on the actions proposed.