NORTH Sea heavyweight Neptune Energy has been awarded what it described as an oil and gas industry-leading rating for its performance against environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.
Neptune noted that it was awarded an ESG risk rating of 21.4 following the latest assessment by the Sustainalytics consultancy, compared with 23.2 last time.
The company, which operates the giant Cygnus gas field in the UK North Sea, said the latest rating was its best from Sustainalytics to date and put it in the top three per cent of all global oil and gas companies rated by the organisation.
READ MORE: Scottish Government's green plan to fuel boom for overseas investors
The rating leaves Neptune in the medium risk category based on the scoring system used by Sustainalytics.
To qualify as low risk firms must have a rating lower than 20.
Neptune said that Sustainalytics had concluded that the company’s overall management of material ESG issues was strong.
In an extract from its assessment quoted by Neptune, Sustainalytics noted that the company’s management integrates climate transition risks into the wider business processes. It said Neptune Energy’s greenhouse gas reduction management programme integrated initiatives to reduce emissions as well as key mitigation technologies.
READ MORE: $500m boost to field revenue highlights value of North Sea oil and gas resources
On the Sustainalytics website North Sea-focused Harbour Energy has an ESG risk rating of 36.6. Shell has a 36.2 rating.
Neptune noted that Sustainalytics’ ratings are used by global investors to help develop responsible investing strategies.
The ratings are likely to come under scrutiny from environmental campaigners amid claims that continued oil and gas exploration and production activity is incompatible with the global drive to achieve net zero in terms of emissions.
READ MORE: Shetland fields in sight of London oil traders amid windfall tax furore
Neptune’s Head of ESG, Kate Niblock, said: “During 2022, we took actions to improve what we do and how we do it, including setting out our lower carbon ambitions and launching our goal to achieve gender parity. As we progress our ESG roadmap to 2025, our focus will be on delivering our human rights programme and working with partners and suppliers on emissions reduction.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here