SDFI and Petoro annual report 2012
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Corporate social responsibility (CSR)Petoro’s management of substantial assets on behalf of the Norwegian government calls for good corporate governance which fulfils the expectations of its stakeholders and society at large. The board adopted guidelines in 2012 for the exercise of corporate social responsibility (CSR) at Petoro. CSR embraces the activities voluntarily pursued by the company over and above existing legal and regulatory obligations. Petoro undertakes to conduct its business operations in an ethically acceptable, sustainable and responsible manner. Funding for discharging its management duties and for running the company is provided through appropriations from the government, and Petoro has no mandate to provide monetary support for social purposes. The board emphasises that the company’s CSR forms an integral part of its activities and strategies. This is reflected in part through its values. Petoro’s CSR was earlier addressed as part of its business ethics through the guidelines on this subject. Measures which ensure that Petoro discharges its CSR include the following. Ethical guidelines. The company has guidelines on business ethics, which are publicly available. Their purpose is to clarify principles which govern the company’s commercial operations and employee behaviour. All employees sign the company’s ethical guidelines every year. These guidelines cover such considerations as the duty of confidentiality, possible conflicts of interest and issues related to the receipt of gifts and services. Petoro has established security requirements for data and for information and communication technology (ICT) in its operations. Its information systems and data are secured against unauthorised access. The consequences of breaching Petoro’s guidelines on business ethics are covered in a separate section. The company expects its partners and contractors/suppliers to maintain the same ethical standards set for its own business operations. | Openness on money flows and anti-corruption work. Petoro does not accept any form of corruption or other malpractice. Employees are not permitted to receive remuneration from others in their work for the company. Petoro reports money flows related to the SDFI portfolio on an annual basis to the extractive industries transparency initiative (Eiti). Details of the remuneration of directors and senior executives are provided in a separate note to the accounts for Petoro AS. HSE declaration. Through its HSE declaration, Petoro has a goal of creating a good physical and mental working environment for all employees. It has routines for reporting conditions open to criticism. The board encourages the company’s employees to raise ethical issues and to report any breaches of the regulations they encounter. The internal audit function is an independent whistleblowing channel with the right and duty to report to the board. No cases of whistleblowing were recorded in 2012. Diversity and equal opportunities. Petoro will not discriminate on any basis. Women accounted for 36 per cent of the total workforce in 2012, similar to the year before, and for 42 and 25 per cent of the company’s directors and executive management respectively. Petoro gives weight to equality between the genders in terms of opportunities for professional and personal development, pay and promotion. The company facilitates a flexible customising of working hours. When determining pay and in pay negotiations, Petoro is conscious that men and women must be treated equally. No systematic or significant differences exist between male and female pay in the company. Petoro has employees from several countries. | Natural environment. Petoro undertakes as a licensee to ensure that operations in which it participates are conducted in a sustainable manner which minimises negative impacts on nature and the natural environment. The NCS has a good record for environmental impacts compared with other petroleum provinces. Further improvement is nevertheless the goal. Petoro is concerned to ensure that power from shore is assessed for new field developments and major conversions, and that a decision is based on technically feasible solutions at an acceptable abatement cost. One condition for increased use of power from shore is sufficient capacity in the electricity grid on land. A pre-unit agreement was established in 2012 on the development of joint infrastructure for Johan Sverdrup and other discoveries on the Utsira High, including common solutions for power from shore. The purpose of this work is to establish a robust and sustainable concept for power from shore, based on the requirements of four field developments in the same area. This represents the first occasion that such an area solution is being studied on the NCS. The timetable for such an area solution calls for installation in 2017 and power deliveries from 2018. Plans call for Johan Sverdrup to come on stream in the latter year. The company contributes to creating environmentally conscious attitudes among all its employees. Waste sorting and incentives to increase the use of public and environment-friendly transport were continued in 2012. Emphasis is given to efficient ICT solutions and good communication systems, with opportunities to replace travel with videoconferencing. Petoro reports emissions to the air and discharges to water from the portfolio in a separate chapter of this report on the natural environment, based on figures obtained from the operators. No large individual discharges to the sea or on land occurred from the SDFI portfolio during 2012. | |
