The International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) has released the second edition of “Report 254: Environmental Management in the Upstream Oil and Gas Industry.” For this edition, IPIECA, the oil and gas industry group focused on environmental and social concerns, has added its expertise.
The report weas first published in 1997 by the Exploration and Production (E&P) Forum, IOGP’s predecessor organization. As the second edition states, much has changed in the world and the industry since then. “We recognize that society has different, and still evolving, expectations of our industry’s environmental performance,” write Gordon Ballard and Brian Sullivan, executive directors of IOGP and IPIECA, respectively, in their introduction. “In response, the report has been extensively revised and updated and includes numerous features and topics new to this edition.”
Major updates to the second edition are
- The section providing an overview of the upstream oil and gas industry reflects advancements in technology throughout the E&P lifecycle, many of which, the report says, help reduce the industry’s effect on the environment.
- The environmental management approaches outlined in the report have been adjusted to align with IOGP’s Operating Management System Framework and the Environmental Management System standard. This section also explains the roles of and connections between oil and gas companies and national governments.
- The report includes a guide to identification and mitigation of environmental effects, using IOGP and IPIECA publications as references.
- Regarding regulations, the report presents the characteristics of effective national regulations and changes to regional, multilateral, and international frameworks. The report also presents the expectations of international financing institutions.