At Oxy, social responsibility is a core value, integral to our success as a respected global company helping to meet the world’s energy needs. Strong social responsibility programs are fundamental to our goal of maintaining Oxy’s reputation as a partner of choice, employer of choice and neighbor of choice.
Our programs reflect companywide commitments to a safe and healthy workplace, responsible environmental stewardship, high ethical standards and active participation in the communities in which we operate.
Over the past two years we have made significant progress in integrating our social responsibility and security standards with Oxy’s Health, Environment and Safety Management System (HESMS). We want to ensure that every facet of our business — from hiring and training of personnel, to engaging with governments and other partners, to project planning and implementation — is guided by the ethical, environmental and human rights commitments of the company. This is important for sustainable corporate growth, which helps to increase stockholder value.
It is also the right thing to do. As illustrated throughout this Report, our engagement with communities seeks to establish positive communications in order to identify issues of greatest importance and shape effective action plans and programs.
Our dedication to protecting the environment is evident throughout Oxy’s operations. We strive to conserve resources, reduce waste and enhance energy efficiency and reliability. We were honored to be named the 2008 Natural Gas STAR Production Partner of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency —a prestigious recognition of our significant efforts to reduce methane emissions.
Our extensive use of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques to extend and maximize production from mature fields also benefits the environment. Recovering oil from existing fields requires significantly fewer resources than installing new infrastructure and equipment at new locations. Furthermore, as noted in the special section on climate change, EOR can be a means of permanent geologic storage of carbon dioxide with the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In June 2008, we were pleased to provide Congressional testimony at the request of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, whose members sought Oxy’s expertise on carbon dioxide EOR technology.
We achieved exemplary worldwide safety performance during the past year. The 2008 employee Injury and Illness Incidence Rate (IIR), a key safety metric, was less than 1.0 for the 13th consecutive year. Our worldwide employee IIR of 0.45 was a 10-percent improvement over 2007 and the second-best result in company history, and our full-time contractor IIR of 0.84 was our best to date. We take pride in the fact that Oxy’s safety performance is not only among the best in our own industry, but about nine times better than the overall U.S. industry average.
In the human rights arena, we continued to provide training sessions and cultural awareness programs for our international employees and contractors, as well as special workshops for security personnel. We completed risk assessments for our operations in Qatar and exploration blocks in Yemen, and updated an assessment for Argentina. In Colombia, we are updating our risk assessment for the Llanos Norte Basin operations and we continued to implement the risk assessment recommendations for the La Cira-Infantas operation with two leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are focused on human rights and social issues.
Highlighting an active and successful year for Oxy’s social responsibility programs, we received notable recognition in 2008. We were ranked among CRO (Corporate Responsibility Officer) Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens for the year. This highly regarded ranking acknowledges strong performance in a variety of key areas, including governance, environment, financial results, human rights and philanthropy. Oxy also was recognized by Realizing Rights and the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre for making a public commitment to human rights.
In addition, we were gratified to be a finalist — out of more than 60 companies nominated by U.S. ambassadors around the world — for the Secretary of State’s 2008 Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE). This prestigious nomination recognized our successful initiatives in Colombia, including community education programs, environmental stewardship and commitment to human rights.
Oxy’s social responsibility programs have been effective because we understand that each of us is an ambassador on behalf of our company, with a duty to protect its well-deserved reputation as a responsive and conscientious member of the global business community. At Oxy, social responsibility is not merely good for business — it is everyone’s business.
Dr. Ray R. Irani
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer