Abstract
With increasing oil and gas exploration and production activities taking place, concern about how environmental issues are addressed grows. While industry has made great strides in the protection of the environment, various challenges still exist. The Environmentally Friendly Drilling (EFD) Program provides unbiased science on technologies that are designed to address environmental issues. The EFD Scorecard was created to be a voluntary, consensus-based tool that can measure how industry addresses environmental and societal issues. The Scorecard provides a common lexicon enabling all stakeholders to understand the level to which these concerns are addressed.
The EFD Scorecard methodology is designed to document how issues such as air, water, site, waste management, biodiversity/habitat, and societal impacts are addressed. It is intended to be an adaptive ecosystem services management tool that will assist operating companies in planning and implementing good practices to manage operational risks. It can be used to objectively assess operators' environmental performance and provides a means to increase environmental and societal awareness within an organization. The Scorecard has been tested on site in different locations in the United States and Canada. These review processes identified additional attributes to consider for inclusion and/or elimination to further ensure relevant information was being examined.
Issues involving air, water, site and societal/community disturbances potentially alarm stakeholders who may not understand that numerous environmentally friendlier technologies are currently being researched, developed and used to address such matters. Air and water are a focus for many, particularly with attention to increasing regulatory requirements. Several operators go beyond what is required, taking steps to lessen effects. Biodiversity management is frequently considered within the reclamation process. Many operators and service providers are mitigating effects to wildlife habitats by incorporating proactive measures. The Scorecard enables a methodology to be employed that documents existing, cost effective, proven technologies, processes and systems used to address environmental and societal issues associated with energy development. Industry can gain powerful and much needed insight in relaying their efforts at addressing environmental issues throughout E&P operations. As the demand for oil increases, a tool to measure and share the performance and commitment of operators can help allay unease about transparency. Benchmarking best management practices in action and making such data available can also improve communication with all stakeholders.
This paper aims to provide an overview of a tool for operators that will help open the doors of communication to all of their stakeholders. The EFD Scorecard will provide the unbiased data in understandable and approachable terminology that has been vetted by industry, environmental groups, academia and NGO's, enabling the O&G industry to reach out to communities surrounding operations and engage them in dialogue.
