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

EHS risk management and asset protectionIn 2011, a new Group Asset Protection Manager was appointed.Crisis management, emergency preparedness and security arecritical EHS risk and reputation management issues for Tullow.We consider all forms of EHS risk, from major accidents tosimple workplace hazards. We maintain a dynamic EHS riskinventory that sets out our top 10 EHS risks which are alsoranked by significance. This enables us to take a strategicapproach to EHS risk management. Tullow’s Chief OperatingOfficer gives an EHS update at each Board meeting. EHS risksand statistics are reported monthly and there is a quarterlyreview process with participation from Tullow operations,regional business management, corporate EHS and Executives.Twice a year the Board receives a detailed update on EHSissues and risks. In 2012, we introduced a Group SecurityStandard. Tullow has interests in 22 countries, each presentinga different operating and security risk profile. The introductionof this standard reinforces our requirement to safeguard peopleand property against potential security threats and ensures acommon base level of security is maintained wherever weoperate. To complement this, Tullow has requested admissionto the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.These are a set of principles to guide companies in maintainingthe safety and security of their operations, within a clearoperating structure that promotes respect for human rights.More informationPageCorporate risk framework 14toes 63Think Forward in 2012 and beyondIt is a real challenge to consistently deliver top quartile EHSperformance, in the context of our increased scale of activitiesand the rapid growth in our employees, contractors and areasof operation. As Tullow grows there is potential for moreincidents but there is also a danger of falling into the positionthat more procedures are needed to prevent these. In adynamic operating environment people need to be empoweredto think beyond systems and checkboxes. They need to be ableto adapt to change, sometimes very rapidly, and be ready tointervene, respond and act. The whole purpose of ‘ThinkForward’, which is our new EHS framework, is to get peopleto look ahead and be proactive in preventing an incident byactively thinking about the risks that they are managing.With good collaboration, strong leadership and up-to-datecompetencies our aim is to build a culture of confidentinterventions. ‘Think Forward’ will help us create the rightbehaviours which will enable us to manage EHS in a muchmore responsive and tailored way. It is about improving our EHSperformance but, more importantly, it is about enabling people.3MEASURING OUR PERFORMANCESETTING EMISSIONS TARGETSTullow’s operational footprint has grown extensivelyin the last five years. The Group has discovered fournew oil basins, three in Africa and one offshoreFrench Guiana in South America. We becameoperator of a major new production facility offshoreGhana, which is expected to achieve plateauproduction in 2013. We also have a number of majordevelopment projects underway in Ghana andUganda. In the meantime, we continue to review ourportfolio of assets and have disposed of gasproduction facilities in the UK, with plans to disposeof our Asian portfolio in the near future. In addition,we have sought to significantly improve ourenvironmental data monitoring and reporting andthis year we adopted industry standards.Indicative of the scale and pace of change is thegrowth in the number of hours worked acrossTullow activities. In 2011, over 13 million hours wereworked across Tullow, including a 35% increase inproduction, 35 E&A wells and 60 development wells.This compares with 5.6 million hours worked justfive years ago. Our 2011 activities included asignificant number of higher risk operations such asdeepwater drilling in South America and productionramp-up in Ghana with 33 oil liftings to date.This level of change across our activities makes itvery difficult to set emission reduction targets forthe Group. However, we believe our 2011environmental performance is the penultimate stepbefore a predicted improvement across a range ofenvironmental indicators including greenhouse gasemissions, water use, waste and spills. Thisimproved performance should be achieved boththrough the launch of toes in March 2012 coupledwith the changes made to Group-wide 2012environmental KPIs.In 2012, a toes self-assessment tool has beendeveloped and is expected to be completed foroperated and ownership controlled assets this year.Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP)closure reports are required for each Environmentaland Social Impact Assessment (ESIA). These,together with implementation of the TullowChemical Management Plan, Drilling Fluids andCuttings Disposal Standard and Greenhouse GasStandard, underpin the expected improvement inour environmental performance. These activities willalso provide us with clear identification of the gapswe need to work on in 2013 and 2014.67www.tullowoil.com