What is Stewardship?

When the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) launched its Stewardship initiative in 1999, it was the first of its kind in the world-a stated commitment by CAPP members to responsible and balanced resource development and continuous improvement in environmental, health, safety, and social performance. In the six years since then, CAPP has worked with our members to develop the initiative and better address issues of importance to our stakeholders. Today, the core Stewardship values are engrained in CAPP's 150 member companies, and the data we collect confi rms we are well along the path of continuous improvement. We're proud of our accomplishments and we've set ambitious goals for the future. However, a lot of people-even those in the oil and gas industry- have never heard of CAPP or its Stewardship initiative. It's not surprising. While our members apply the principles of Stewardship to their own business models and operating environments, it is not something they talk about. Here is an example: In January, CAPP hosted its fi rst Stewardship-related event for 2005. Natural Resources Canada Minister John Efford came to Calgary to announce that four CAPP members-Anadarko Canada Corporation, Apache Canada Ltd., Penn West Petroleum Ltd., and Suncor Energy Inc.-qualifi ed for a federal program to encourage CO2 capture and underground storage. Greenhouse gas emissions, including CO2, have been one of the key benchmarks for Stewardship since 1999, but nowhere in the national news coverage generated by the announcement did the word "tewardship" appear, nor did anyone make the connection to Stewardship. Stewardship isn't a label that gets slapped on a product; it's an ethic that integrates economic, environmental, and social considerations through all aspects of each company's operations. That is the real essence of the initiative. However, our industry earns its license to operate through our decisions and actions and their impacts, so it is more important than ever that CAPP work to improve Canadians' knowledge, awareness, and trust of the upstream oil and gas industry. Canada is a major contributor to global oil and gas supplies and will be for decades to come. We are the world's third largest producer of natural gas and ninth largest producer of crude oil. Daily production in Canada is greater than half the members of OPEC and, thanks to Alberta's oil sands, Canada's oil reserves are second in the world only to Saudi Arabia. The economic impact of oil and gas activity is evident. About one-quarter of the world's drilling rigs operate in Canada and CAPP members drill more than 20,000 new wells a year. The record level of drilling activity has brought the industry into contact with an increasing number of stakeholders and communities. In today's fast-paced, information-based world, our stakeholders have access to a variety of information sources-some accurate and some not-and they are more engaged than ever.