Tullow Oil plc 2011/2012 Corporate Responsibility Report - The Group

More informationPageAssurance 803Water usage10,408,240m 32010: 107,423m 3Oil and chemical spills142010: 4Supplementary EHS data 81Waste32,707 TONNES84.29% RECYCLEDMEASURING OUR PERFORMANCE151412100%(waste)96365484.29%(recycled)Fresh water 1%0107 08 09 10 11Seawater 99%Water management is important in anyarea where fresh water, in particular, isconstrained due to limited supply orextensive water needs. Water availabilitycan impact the local environment andinfluence socio-economic activity. In2011, we have reported the use of bothfresh and seawater in our operations.Fresh water accounted for 1% andseawater 99%. We have seen asignificant increase in water usageduring 2011, attributable to the start-upof production in Ghana. The waterreinjection system in these operationsuses a significant amount of seawater,and this has accounted for almost 99%of our total water usage. The Ugandaand French Guiana drilling programmesused 86,667 m 3 and 18,916 m 3respectively. Although relatively small,this represents a significant increase inthe use of water in Uganda. During 2011,there were five operational camps and12 well sites, compared with threeoperational camps and seven well sitesin 2010. We are concerned about theincrease in water usage in Uganda andKenya as our activities expand in thesecountries, and in 2012 we are developinga position on the issue.We did not achieve our UncontrolledReleases KPI, which was introducedin 2011. This indicator measures thenumber and volume of spills, orunintended releases, of any materialswhich could impact the environment.The effect of Uncontrolled Releasesto the environment depends on twocomponents – the volume released andthe receiving environment. In 2011,Tullow had 14 incidents of uncontrolledreleases, which was over four times ourtarget. Eight incidents were in Ugandaand six in Ghana. While none of theincidents were particularly significant,they do demonstrate that spills need tobe a key area of focus for the business,specifically drilling fluid storage andmanagement. The EHS and WellEngineering Teams have developed aDrilling Fluids and Cuttings DisposalStandard and a set of guidelines that ouroperations must comply with. During2011, we also significantly improved thereporting of environmental incidents,which will help us to enhance ourprocesses and the integrity of ourequipment.Waste is a new reporting parameterfor Tullow in 2011. Effective wastemanagement is an important aspectof operational efficiency to reduce theenvironmental, social and economicimpacts of our activities. Wastemanagement is a challenging issuein remote locations with limited or noinfrastructure for waste disposal. Tullowoperations produced 32,707 tonnes ofwaste in 2011, over 84% of which hasbeen reused, recycled or treated. Themost significant contributor to our wastetonnage was our Ugandan activities,which accounted for almost 80% of totalGroup waste. We had been storing drillcuttings onsite until we could identifyapproved waste contractors in thecountry who could legally andresponsibly deal with our waste. In 2011,we were able to work with local suppliersto dispose of a considerable volumeof waste. One of our environmentalobjectives this year is to develop aGroup position on waste management.65www.tullowoil.com