Search

We, at NEO Energy, are making progress to deliver against our ESG Strategy and Net Zero Targets.

In 2023, Paul Harris, CEO, commented:

“Now more than ever, it is vital to be able to demonstrate that in the course of our business, we’re committed to tackling environmental issues, being a positive force for social good and applying robust governance. Under ever-increasing scrutiny, transparency in these matters helps to reassure societal stakeholders that we are acting in line with their expectations.”

A key theme from last year was the continued growth of our organisation, with the acquisition of non-operated interests in the UK, including the Culzean and Mariner assets. Naturally, the associated increase in production brought with it an increase in absolute Scope 1 emissions from the aquistion, overall the carbon intensity across our portfolio has fallen. The impact of any potential new acquisition on the portfolio’s carbon intensity is a key factor in our business development strategy.

On our operated assets, GPIII and Babbage, we have established Emissions Reduction Action Plans (ERAPs) to target emission reductions through a variety of projects, including power generation, flaring and venting.

We have also continued to play an active role alongside our partners in progressing towards platform electrification across our non-operated portfolio in the Central North Sea.

We know we must maintain our focus on keeping people safe and while we have seen a welcome reduction in total recordable incident frequency (TRIF), we know we can’t be complacent. That’s why we’ve also started incorporating serious incident frequency (SIF) into our reporting and putting increased emphasis on ensuring we embed learnings from all incidents.

In 2022, we carried out a comprehensive ESG Materiality Matrix Survey across the business to better understand the sustainability topics which matter most to our stakeholders and how we should focus our efforts going forward. 

This led to a number of positive actions, including the development of an ESG RACI which maps the involvement of NEO teams in ESG. We have also put in place a 5-year ESG plan to define a clear pathway to achieving the targets we set ourselves in our Low Carbon Transition Plan (LCTP) and the industry targets agreed in the North Sea Transition Deal. The LCTP, developed in 2021, targets a 50% reduction in carbon intensity per barrel by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

We are establishing a new Sustainability Policy, ensuring ESG issues are considered at the heart of operational and business decision making, while we also incorporated Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards to increase transparency.

During the year we made huge strides in cementing our long-term social partnerships by entering a number of multi-year agreements. These included three new charity partnerships across our main office locations and a set of higher education scholarships awarded to widening access students studying STEM subjects. This was all achieved while continuing to strongly support our existing community partners. 

None of this would be possible without strong governance at the heart of our business. In 2022 we began work to optimise our Management System, ensuring our policies, procedures and way of working remain fit for purpose as the business grows and evolves. 

We continue to recognise the importance of our value chain in all aspects of society, including the environmental impact, fair employment, supporting local economies and building competence. We are very proud to be awarded OEUK’s Supply Chain Principles Silver Award, which recognises excellence in contracting practices, co-operative behaviours and continuous improvement in business collaboration and competitiveness. 

As a responsible employer and a committed investor in the UK, we understand the importance of supporting the delivery of UK energy security in line with stakeholder expectations to maintain our licence to operate. ESG continues to be the heart of our business.