Kuwait Oil Company wins 2019 International CSR Excellence Awards

The Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) won the 2019 International CSR Excellence Awards for its outstanding efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The 2019 International CSR Excellence Awards is operated by the UK’s Green Organization which is an independent, international, non-profit and non-political environmental group founded in 1994. The awards recognizes responsible companies and organizations that give back to the community.

In a press release, the KOC said the honoring attests to the company’s success to reduce gas flaring from 19.7 percent in 2008/2009 to 0.6 percent in the first quarter of 2015/2016.

The organization’s annual publication will include the working papers of the awards’ winners to highlight their stories of success in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

In 2012, Kuwait joined the Global Gas Flaring Reduction (GGFR) partnership, an initiative led by the World Bank to reduce emissions that result from the oil industry.

Kuwait was the third country in the Middle East to join the initiative.

Kuwait Oil Company has reduced flaring to 1.75% of its gas production in 2011, and has been one of the lowest flaring oil companies. With support from GGFR, the company’s progress in this regard resulted into upping annual revenue by $2.7 billion, lowering consumption of liquid fuels, and reducing liquified natural gas (LNG) imports.

The World Bank Group has a leadership role in gas flaring reduction through the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR), a public-private initiative comprising international and national oil companies, national and regional governments, and international institutions. GGFR works to increase use of natural gas associated with oil production by helping remove technical and regulatory barriers to flaring reduction, conducting research, disseminating best practices, and developing country-specific gas flaring reduction programs.

The World Bank has underscored that gas flaring reduction makes a significant contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, improves energy efficiency and mitigates climate change.

Billions of cubic meters of natural gas is flared annually at oil production sites around the globe. Flaring gas wastes a valuable energy resource that could be used to support economic growth and progress. It also contributes to climate change by releasing millions of tons of CO2 to the atmosphere.

Ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity is also an integral part of GGFR’s strategy. Natural gas resources help countries move toward a more sustainable energy path. It is the fossil fuel with the lowest carbon intensity, at half the footprint of coal at the point of combustion. It can be the least-cost source of flexible electricity supply for grid-based systems with fluctuating supply and demand.