Environmental Management in the Oil & Gas Industry, A Guide to Environmental Management Good Practices in the Upstream Oil & Gas Industry – Second Edition

Abstract

Abstract "Environmental Management in the Oil & Gas Industry" was first published in 1997 by the E&P Forum (IOGP's predecessor) and UNEP as a guide to best practices in environmental management throughout the lifecycle of upstream oil and gas projects. In the intervening two decades the industry has made substantial changes in the environmental risk management and mitigation. This paper describes the development of and summarizes the major changes and additions into the guide's content. IOGP's Environmental Committee decided in 2016 that a revision of the "Environmental Management in the Oil & Gas Industry" publication was required. This publication has been one of IOGP's most successful and most accessed publications over the past 20 years. For this second edition IOGP has partnered with IPIECA and had a close collaboration with UNEP. A work group was created to review existing content, to determine what additions and changes to content were required, and to draft a revised edition. Multiple workshops and technical reviews were undertaken to construct the revised document. The project required several years of work by a team of over 20 specialists, needed particular attention to the requirements of the many and varied stakeholders that IOGP, IPIECA and UNEP have, and careful thought about the intended audience for the publication. The report is intended to function as a primer, or introductory document, to the fundamentals of environmental management as it is practiced in today's upstream oil and gas industry. The intended audience includes oil and gas industry managers and practitioners, environmental consultants, regulatory agencies, financing institutions, and non-governmental organizations. The report has been re-organized into five main chapters covering: the role of oil and gas in the 21st century; an overview of the upstream oil and gas industry, reflecting advancements in technology; environmental management approaches, including advances in international best practices and respective roles and interfaces between operators and governments; environmental impacts and mitigation measures, with references to latest relevant IOGP, IPIECA and UNEP specialized guidance documents; and regulatory requirements at national, regional, and international level. There was emphasis on topics that have developed or emerged over the past 20 years including the relationship between environmental management and social management, and biodiversity and ecosystem services impacts. The publication of the (freely available) second edition of this guide in 2020, endorsed by IOGP, IPIECA with close collaboration with UNEP, marks an important step in the industry's work to promote and facilitate effective and responsible management of the environmental risks that are within the industry's scope of responsibility. It is hoped that this document will also provide a useful tool for capacity building of key stakeholders in countries with new oil and gas industries.