Two international oil companies have produced their first social reports in a bid to counter calls for them to withdraw from areas of conflict.
UK-based Premier Oil, which operates in Myanmar, and Canada’s Talisman, which works in Sudan, both claim their debut reports, published last month, go some way to showing that their presence in the two countries is more beneficial than harmful to local people.
Each company has faced calls from its home government to pull out of the territories because of concerns about human rights abuses related to the military government in Myanmar and the civil war in Sudan. But both have resisted on the grounds that they can achieve more by staying in the countries and ‘engaging’ with governments and local communities, than by choosing to withdraw.
Premier’s first social performance report includes interviews with 43 people from three villages near its 70km pipeline in the south of the country.
Its analysis of the interviews carried out by the Australian research agency Compass Research claims that most villagers felt the company’s presence had improved their lives by bringing in more money, better health and education facilities and better infrastructure. But there were complaints that the income had not been distributed evenly and worries about the possibility of explosions.
Premier stresses that the report uses material gathered from a pilot, rather than a full social audit, and says it will begin a new round of consultation with local communities before the end of this year.
It also plans to appoint an independent ‘facilitator’ to talk to people who have been displaced by oil operations in Myanmar, and will include consultation with the military government in future audits.
The report commits the company, which has been working in Myanmar for almost four years, to use ‘legitimate influence to promote the protection of human rights outside of our areas of operation’.
It adds: ‘Our main aim this year should be to develop a consistent internal approach to the management of governmental relations’.
Premier says it has provided $1.8million (£1.28m) for social development work in southern Myanmar since it entered the country four years ago. The company made a profit of $8.6m in 2000 after tax, and in 1999 a loss of $40m.
Talisman’s first corporate social responsibility report concentrates exclusively on Sudan, and features short extracts from interviews with people living near its operations, as well as from international and Sudanese NGOs, local opinion leaders, members of national and local government, employees and suppliers. Many of the interviews were carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The report says Talisman is particularly concerned about government use of its oilfield infrastructure for ‘non-defensive military purposes’.
It says there were at least four instances of ‘non-defensive usage’ of its Heglig airstrip in 2000 and says it has ‘consistently requested that incidents of this kind do not occur’.
It claims senior managers have ‘engaged in extensive dialogue’ with the government up to presidential level on this issue, as well as on human rights concerns such as the reported bombing of civilians and use of child soldiers.
But it admits: ‘The area of advocacy is one that is new to Talisman, and we are continually learning and developing what we believe to be appropriate boundaries for our efforts.’