Global Sustainability Reporting Practices and Trends in the Oil and Gas Industry - A Survey

Abstract

Abstract Oil and natural gas companies realize that measuring and reporting sustainability performance is increasingly important to both internal and external stakeholders. Not only is it an opportunity to enhance a company's reputation, it provides license to operate and access to new opportunities. It also clarifies the industry position for external stakeholders. Oil and gas companies have for many years been carefully measuring and openly reporting financial performance according to well prescribed accounting rules. Yet, companies face significant challenges when they extend the same practice to reporting sustainability performance: There is no industry consensus on what constitutes sustainability reporting.As companies internalize the concepts of sustainability, they discover that the measures change.While guidelines such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) are emerging, it is not clear that they satisfy the needs of the oil and gas industry. In response to this challenge, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA) initiated an industry-led initiative in 2001 to help oil and gas companies and industry associations improve the quality, scope, completeness and usefulness of reporting sustainability performance as a means to meet the needs and expectations of key internal and external stakeholders.