Sustainability is one of the key components which have gained significant attractiveness in the last few decades. The issue related to sustainability and sustainable development have been analysed primarily in the Oil and Gas industry. The oil and gas exploration as well as production continues to be a basic requirement and priority and to achieve sustainability, the companies are striving hard and continuously implementing practices which can help the oil and gas industry to achieve increased level of sustainability (Fiksel, 2006). This paper will highlight the concept of sustainability, its implementation in the three stages of oil and gas production, various impacts of sustainability on the oil and gas industry. The next part of the report will provide insights of the several challenges faced by the oil and gas companies during and after the implementation of sustainable practices within the industry. The report will end by throwing lights upon the future development in the field of sustainability and sustainable development within the oil and gas industries and a brief conclusion.
In the oil and gas production, there are three different stages that comprises of upstream, midstream and downstream. In the upstream stage there includes the production and exploration activities in the oil and gas industry. In the downstream stage, the activities which comprises of are refining, processing, purifying, marketing and distribution. The midstream activities are generally considered as the part of the downstream stage only in the oil and gas industry. All these activities are the key operations of oil and gas industry that requires having high sustainability to achieve increased sustainable development in the industry (Copeland, et al., 2009). In the upstream stage where there is production and exploration activities, as well as in the downstream stage, there can be achieved high level of sustainability by the means of various sustainable practices such as by focusing upon the green house emissions, air quality, water management, biodiversity impacts, human rights, security and rights of the indigenous individuals, community relations and emergency, safety and health management. By incorporating practices that can reduce the emission of the green house gases such as pipeline transmission system, pipeline systems, compressor stations, global methane initiative (GMI), metering station, etc. (IGU, 2012).
With the help of the pipeline transmission system and the pipeline approach there is replacing of the wet seals with the dry seals in the centrifugal compressors so that there can be reduced emission of methane gas and can achieve high sustainability. With the use of compressor engines, GMI and metering stations, the oil and gas industries achieved sustainable development as there is automated air that controls the fuel ratio and with GMI, the oil and gas industries strive ahrd to achieve sustainability by the manes of promoting and volunteering the cost-effective reductions of the emissions of methane in the atmosphere. As the downstream and the upstream stages involved high risks, thus the companies and the overall industry is continuously trying to adopt practices that can reduce the impact on the individuals, society and the environment and can have higher sustainable development (IGU, 2012). Therefore, to attain sustainability specifically in the downstream stage, the oil and gas industry is taking use of the approaches such as the compressor rod packaging systems, use of the pneumatic devices for the operations in the natural gas industry and by the means of direct inspection and maintenance of the compressor stations and the various workplaces stations (Howarth, Ingraffea and Engelder, 2011).
In the present scenario, there is a vital need for the sustainable practices and sustainable development in the oil and gas industry. The organisations and the companies are investing huge capital for implementing the sustainability practices and the incorporation and the implementation of these practices have a direct and in-depth impact on the oil and gas industry. The first and the key impact is that with the sustainability practices, the industry can have a faster and improved achievement of sustainability development goals. There are various SDGs that are required to be attained for having a better and long term, stay in the industry (Oyedepo, 2012).
The gaols such as sustainable cities, good health and well being, affordable and clean energy, climate action, clean water and sanitation, industry, innovation and infrastructure, life on land, etc. are achieved in a rapid manner. The next impact upon the oil and gas industry of the sustainable practices is improvement in the energy efficiency in the production and operation. The suitability practice regarding the energy-saving measures results in addressing the issue of energy poverty and there is reduced energy losses and therefore the cost of energy for the companies decreased in regards with the distribution, transmission, providing and refining g activities and thus it results in financial incentives for the oil and gas industry (Omer, 2008). Another impact is that the oil and gas industry able to achieve increased level of economic productivity as with the sustainable practices there results in innovation, technological upgrading, diversification and emphasis on the labour intensive sectors and the value added segments. Another positive impact that will be valid upon the oil and gas of the sustainability practices will be availability of the labour force. As due to high risk in the activities and operations of the oil and gas industry, there is shortage of workers but with more sustainable practices, there is increased supply of the workforce in the industry that helps in improvement and development of the oil and gas industry (Yusuf, et al., 2013). Other most probable and potential impacts include supply of reliable, clean and affordable energy to the consumers, improves the proficiency of the value chain and the activities of the upstream, midstream and downstream activities. There are also achieves benefits related to the life cycle as because of suitable practices the life cycle also extends of the products and the processes (Jiang, et al., 2011).
There are several potential challenges and issues which occur in front of the oil and gas companies at the time of implementing sustainable practices as well as after incorporating those practices. The first and the key issues during the sustainability achievement process is that the oil and gas industry require a complete awareness of all the stakeholders in respect with the change of the framework of the industry from a linear to a cyclic approach (UNDP, 2017). It comprises of the life cycle of the various processes related to extraction and production by the means of waste management, design and planning. The incorporation of the sustainable practices in the oil and gas industry requires complete understanding, consciousness and knowledge of the consequences of the actions taken by the individuals in the field of sustainable development. Another challenge is the economic factor as it is regarded as a critical issue in the successful incorporation of the sustainability practices in the oil and gas industry (Epstein and Buhovac, 2014). The economic issues that takes place comprises of the issues related to incremental time and the additional cost. In addition to the economic challenge, the other challenges are the technological as well as the societal challenges. The societal challenges include issues such as lack of public awareness, resistance to change i.e. from the traditional approaches to the sustainable approaches and the lack of incentives from the government. The technological challenges are lack of appropriate technological specifications and inappropriate understanding of the technological operations in context with sustainability approach (API, 2015). There are several challenges that occur after the implementation of the sustainable practices too such issues or challenges related to the insufficient knowledge and competence on the effective working on the green technologies and materials which results in awful outcomes. The next challenge that takes place is the lack or squat accessibility of the green suppliers because of less and a kind of new demand in the market (Chu and Majumdar, 2012). Thus, the limited availability results in ineffective sustainable operations. The next challenge after the implementation of the sustainable practices is the clack of the correct quantitative evaluation tools and techniques which weakens the oil and gas industries to measure the effectiveness of the sustainable practices and to analyse whe5ther the sustainability practices are working in a right direction or not. Another challenge is lack of the professional capacity and competence and lack of regulations. All these factors restrict the oil and gas companies and the industry to achieve higher sustainable development (Demirbas, 2011).
Because of huge demand and need of sustainable development in the oil and gas industry, there are several present sustainability practices in the industry as well as the researchers and analysts are also focusing upon several practices to be implementing in the future for achieving increased sustainable development in the oil and gas industry. The future developments in the field of sustainability and sustainable development within the oil and gas industry comprise of the practice of planning strategically by the oil and gas companies or achieving a net zero emissions in the future (Dincer and Rosen, 2012). The organisations could consider their present research and development, technology, future fossil-fuel demand, infrastructure investments and the resources for identifying the strategies which will help in the transition of the international energy system. The oil and gas companies can work with the civil society, academia and the governments for promoting the supporting technologies for example the carbon-capture-utilization and-storage for reducing the emissions of the harmful green house gases. Another future development is related to the self-assess carbon resiliency which makes the organisations assess and evaluate their vulnerabilities to climate change and implement corrective and adaptive planning approaches (Lee, Speight and Loyalka, 2014). There are several others in present as well as the future developments for attaining increased sustainable development in the oil and gas industry such as sustainable practices to mitigate emissions, strengthen adaptive capacity and the resilience to the impact of climate change, increasing share of natural gas in the overall energy mix, enhancing the access to the energy services by the means of shared infrastructure and enhancing the efficiency in the operations and production (Lynd, et al., 2008). Several other oil and gas companies and the industry are also in planning to implement other key sustainable practices that comprises of investments in the high-grade biofuels, use of solar power for bringing energy to the off-grid communities, introduction of the efficient waste and chemical management and environmentally sound practices, improving the supply chain sustainability, taking use of Coordinate approaches, taking use of the waste products, investing in the environmental education, protecting biodiversity, ecosystem management, coral conservation, instilling a safety culture, encouraging suppler development and addressing climate change (Sheldon, 2014).
Conclusions
Sustainability and sustainable development in the oil and gas industry is the key factor for achieving success. From the various analysis and information, the report concludes that the companies in the oil and gas sector are striving hard to achieve increase sustainability in the business operations and practices for achieving more sustainable business operations. It has been concluded that there are numerous positive impacts of implementing sustainable practices in the organisations which results in continuous growth of the companies and development of the industry as a whole. From the overall insights, it has also been stated that implementing the sustainable practices is not an easy job as there are several challenges and issues faced by the oil and gas companies during and after the implementation of the sustainable practices. The organisations are required to have effective potentialities and competencies to manage the implementation of the sustainable development practices. It has been concluded that for attaining increased and higher sustainable development within the oil and gas industry, it is essential that there must be continuous and improved practices in the oil and gas industry in the present as well as in the upcoming future so that the industry can achieve sustainable development and can have a better and improved business operations which have a positive impact upon the environmental and on the other key factors.
References
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