Study of world’s top ten environmentally sustainable oil and gas companies published: BP tops the list

BP is the most environmentally sustainable large oil and gas company, according to a study by the sustainability auditing company Management & Excellence (M&E, Madrid, Sao Paulo) on the environmental performance of oil/gas companies.

The study analyses the world’s ten largest oil/gas companies and their compliance with 198 environmental items in seven areas, ranging from energy savings and waste reduction to alternative energies.

BP is ranked 1st under ‘alternative energies’ and ‘environmental transparency’, ranking 2nd in ‘safety’. BP is working to recoup its image after an explosion in its Texas City refinery in 2005. Meanwhile BP has externally certified all but two of its facilities according to ISO 14001 and has succeeded in reducing its CO₂ emissions every year since at least 2004 from 76.8 million t to 75 million t in 2009, 3872 bpd in 2006 to 3711 bpd in 2008. Yet flaring has constantly increased.

Top-10 Environmentally Sustainable Oil/Gas Companies 2009

Rank - Company - Compliance Performance %

1st - BP - 77%
2nd - Petrobras - 75%
3rd - Total - 74%
4th - Chevron - 73%
5th - ENI - 72%
6th - ExxonMobil - 62%
Average - 59%
7th - Shell - 51%
8th - Sinopec - 40%
9th - Gazprom - 36%
10th - Petrochina - 30%

Source: Management & Excellence

Only BP seems to have a real business in alternative energies, setting up its own alternative energy company. Its investments totalled US$ 1.4 billion (0.38% of 2008 revenues) in wind, solar, biofuels and carbon capturing.

Its solar panel sales grew by 41% in 2008, while wind and biofuels appear to be predominantly in more initial stages. Gazprom and Petrochina came in weakest, scoring 14% under alternative energies.

Brazil’s Petrobras is tops in ethanol production, a programme initiated in Brazil in the 1970s and currently being massively expanded with investments of US$ 2.8 billion. Petrobras invested US$ 1.9 billion in ‘environmental modernisation’ of its production—a typical trend in an industry pressured by lower margins resulting from higher exploration costs.

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/exploration/11122009/study_of_world%E2%80%99s_top_ten_environmentally_sustainable_oil_and_gas_companies_published_bp_tops_the_list/