Sustainable Development Strategy

In addition to the traditional business considerations of the sustainability of operational processes, technical development and regulatory compliance, the UK offshore oil and gas sector must also address questions posed by the basin’s advancing maturity; essentially how to sustain its economic, social and environmental contribution to the UK in the face of declining production, and how to manage its ultimate legacy. The sector’s strategy is therefore built on the following broad objectives:

• Economic Objectives – Investment to achieve continued UK production, robust supply chain for UK and export markets, cost efficiency, reserves maximisation and infrastructure utilisation
• Social Objectives – Improving health and safety, maintaining skilled employment, workforce diversity and skills, enhancing stakeholder engagement and social responsibilities.
• Environmental Objectives – Reduction in oil spills, chemical discharges and atmospheric emissions and improvements in energy efficiency and waste consumption and disposal.

Delivering improvements on these objectives involves collaboration between the exploration and production companies and its supply chain and an effective partnership with government. Oil & Gas UK’s sustainable development reporting framework will enable ongoing monitoring and assessment of the industry’s performance in meeting these objectives.

External perception of the industry is not as good as it should be. This has an impact on political decisions that affect us, our ability to recruit and the capability of the sector to respond to these challenges. The industry is aware of the tensions in decision making and the different perspectives of the global issues which exist and will attempt to address the issues in a robust and responsible way. However, the industry needs regular engagement with its broader range of stakeholders, both on how it is doing and where its priorities should lie.

In May 2007, Oil & Gas UK held its third dialogue event to gain feedback from a broad range of stakeholders on how the strategy and recorded indicators could be improved upon. These stakeholder events have been held biennially since 2003 and complement discussions with NGOs at the UK Offshore Forum, as well as other consultations on specific issues when they arise.

In response to feedback from the most recent consultation, the Oil & Gas UK Sustainable Development Report has been re-established as an online interactive. This format ensures that dialogue with stakeholders is continuous, not limited through biennial meetings, and that live updates to the report in the form of statistics and information regarding pertinent issues can be made as opposed to annual updates. This online format also allows stakeholders to provide feedback to Oil & Gas UK which ensures two-way dialogue and regular contact. This report is not intended to duplicate individual corporate reports, but to give a broader sectoral picture for context and perspective, where an aggregate view is meaningful.

You can view the complete outcomes from the Oil & Gas UK Sustainable Development Stakeholder Event held in May 2007 here