Petrofac sets net-zero and diversity targets

Oilfield services provider Petrofac has made a commitment to reach net-zero in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030. The company has also set diversity targets.

Petrofac said on Tuesday that the environmental and gender diversity targets would advance its broader sustainability agenda.

The company added that sustainability was at the core of Petrofac’s strategy and critical to creating long-term value for all stakeholders. Petrofac stated it would “collectively work with the industry to achieve a more sustainable, inclusive and diverse energy sector”.

Petrofac chief executive Ayman Asfari said: “Our sustainability agenda is key to this aspiration and the environmental and diversity targets we are announcing today represent a significant step forward.

“Our net-zero target supports the principles of the Paris Agreement, the UK government’s net-zero goal, and is aligned with our clients’ ambitions as the sector moves to a net-zero future.

“Our gender diversity target will help develop more women leaders for Petrofac and our industry and builds on our work of increasing female representation at both board and junior levels.

“It allows us to help clients decarbonise their activities as well as our own; promote safe, local delivery, and ethical value chains underpinned by rigorous compliance and governance; and build a diverse workforce that helps address the sector’s skills gap“.

Petrofac expects, at a divisional level, for its engineering and production services (EPS) to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions to net-zero by 2025, while engineering and construction (E&C) and integrated energy services (IES) will achieve the same by 2030.

According to the company, the net-zero strategy will focus the business in three areas:

• Reduce – cut emissions by implementing energy efficiencies and low carbon strategies on sites and operations, optimising operations and methods of construction, and advancing flare and venting reduction and carbon abatement plans.

• Transform – adopt new technologies such as phasing in hybrid and electric vehicles on-site, decarbonising heating and cooling systems by switching to renewable electricity where available and fitting smart building technology in offices to maximise energy efficiency.

• Enable – support clients, partners, and suppliers in their lower carbon ambitions, enable flexible and agile working practices, continue to embed emission reductions targets in management scorecards, and incentivise our staff to be advocates for net-zero. 

Petrofac stated that it comprised of staff from 80 nationalities and its board achieved 33 per cent female representation.

The company said it would achieve its target of 30 per cent of women in senior roles by 2030 through a series of measures like continuing to embed diversity targets in management scorecards, developing in-house diversity and inclusion capability, implementing Women in Leadership and “working without bias” training programmes for all our employees and, mentoring high potential women by executive committee members.

To ensure Petrofac achieves its 2030 target, it is setting interim targets of 10 per cent of women in senior roles by 2021 and 20 per cent of women in senior roles by 2025.

“We are proud of our track record of developing young talent and building diversity from within. We will build on the 46 per cent women in our 2019 graduate engineering intake by continuing to encourage more female graduates to join Petrofac as we develop our female leaders”, the company stated.