2.5Environment

Management Approach

For SBM Offshore, managing environmental impact goes beyond compliance to environmental protection and refers to environmentally friendly innovations in the operations of its FPSOs. The Company sees clients’ expectations and requirements being directed by environmental considerations. Within SBM Offshore Operations, anticipating these expectations and managing the Company’s footprint go hand-in-hand with maintaining good operating practices.

The Company endeavours to operate in an environmental and sustainable manner, in order to minimize damage to local ecosystems as well as proactively protect the environment, paying attention to three key environmental aspects:

  • Oil spills – by strictly following set procedures in operations and ensuring measures are in place
  • Unnecessary flaring or emissions into the air or discharges into sea – through prevention when possible
  • Excessive use of energy and waste – by encouraging reduced consumption, recycling and re-use

Environmental data are tracked on a daily basis, evaluated on a monthly basis and consolidated/disclosed annually. The results are compared with the previous years. In addition, SBM Offshore’s environmental data are benchmarked against the IOGP averages. The results are recorded and reported in accordance with the IOGP and GRI guidelines.

2016 performance

In 2016, the Company continued to expand its environmental initiatives by enhancing existing programs and development of new ones including:

Key achievements

  • Maintenance of all existing environmental certifications (ISO14001) on shore bases and marine units (certifications for the three units that came online in 2016 will be completed in 2017)
  • Revision of the environmental management system manual, reflecting the changes introduced for environmental reporting for all units
  • Relocation to the new office in Vitoria (Brazil): sustainability was a key factor in its selection in line with the Company’s objectives. The building has Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification awarded by the US Green Building Council i.e. offers low energy consumption, low CO2 emissions, low water consumption and low waste

Key Targets and results

In order to pursue its commitment to the objectives of ‘No Harm, No Leaks and No Shortcuts’, the Company set the following environmental targets in 2016:

  • Further reduce the flaring under SBM Offshore control relative to the hydrocarbon production by 10% compared to the 2015 performance. This is the second consecutive year where SBM Offshore sets a 10% reduction compared to the previous year;
  • Achieve better environmental performance than the 2014 IOGP industry average on oil discharged in water1, GHG emissions2, flaring3 and energy consumption4;

The following Environmental performance has been recorded in 2016:

  • The volume of gas flared on SBM Offshore account has increased from 118,400 (see Restatements) to 122,950 tonnes in 2016 but with three additional units added to the scope. Relative to the Company’s hydrocarbon production, the gas flared under SBM Offshore’s account per production has decreased from 3.48 in 2015 (see Restatements) to 2.76 tonnes of gas flared per thousand tonnes of hydrocarbon produced (21% reduction). The target of 10% reduction compared to 2015 performance has been substantially exceeded;
  • The total gas flared in 2016 was 21.7 tonnes per thousand tonnes of hydrocarbon produced, of which 87.3% was either requested by the client or did not exceed the client/regulatory allowance. This is 46% more than the IOGP benchmark5;
  • Offshore GHG emissions from energy generation and gas flared relative to the hydrocarbon production decreased compared to 2015. A total of 6,247,825 tonnes of GHG have been produced in 2016, representing 140 tonnes of GHG per thousand tonnes of hydrocarbon produced, which is 12.5% better than 2015 and 8.5% better than the industry benchmark6. This decrease is mainly due to a relatively stable volume of emissions while production increased by 31% with two new generation 3 FPSOs brought online as well as a 7% reduction in the volume of GHG emissions in Angola;
  • The volume of energy consumption used per hydrocarbon produced remains stable compared to 2015 (1.16 gigajoules of energy per tonnes of hydrocarbon produced compared to 1.13 in 2015 (see Restatements), which is 17% lower than the industry benchmark7;
  • Slight increase in the volume of oil discharged to sea per hydrocarbon production. The average volume of oil discharged was 2.59 tonnes per million tonnes of hydrocarbon produced, while the IOGP average is 7.5. This is 65% lower than the industry benchmark;
  • No hydrocarbon spill exceeding one barrel in size (159L) has been reported in 2016, which means that the normalized number of oil spills offshore greater than one barrel per million tonnes of hydrocarbon produced is 0 for 2015, while the industry benchmark8 is 0.13.

future

The Company has been able to reduce the gas flared under SBM Offshore account per production by 51% in two years and wants to further reduce gas flared under its control in 2017. In order to make the environmental targets more relevant for each unit, the Company has decided to adopt a different approach in the target setting for 2017. Each unit has set its own target in terms of flaring reduction. Targets range from 5 to 25% reduction between units, with a consolidated average of 9.6% reduction for 2017 at Company level.

Similar to previous years, SBM Offshore has set the target to achieve better environmental performance than the 2015 IOGP industry benchmark9 for the other environmental aspects: GHG emissions, Energy Consumption, Oil in Water and Oil Spills per production.

In line with its long-term strategy, SBM Offshore has included the following environmental initiatives as part of its HSSE program for 2017:

  • Align SBM Offshore practices with ISRS requirements on Environmental Hazard identification, control and monitoring
  • Continue with the improvement on environmental emissions reporting