What we care about and why.
At Continental Resources, our focus is on helping to solve the major societal issues facing our world, including health, education, and energy poverty. We believe focusing on these core areas ensures the health and security-based energy needs of humankind are met.
A Message from the Hamm Family
As we write this today, the world is facing a new set of geopolitical, environmental, and societal challenges that paint an uncertain future. Russian aggression in Ukraine, supply chain bottlenecks, and record-high consumer prices account for some of the issues we face after two years of a deadly pandemic. It is unsurprising that energy, the building block of our modern world, is at the center of this complex mix.
Since Continental Resources was founded in 1967, our company has survived the boom-and- bust cycles of the Arab Oil Embargo, Iranian Revolution, Great Recession, and countless other geopolitical events. Each crisis confirmed the inextricable, positive link between national security and domestic energy production. As our company has matured, we have been fierce advocates for energy independence as pioneers of horizontal drilling and lifting the ban on crude oil exports, ultimately helping to displace coal with natural gas and reduce emissions. This time around, the urgent need to address the dual threats of climate change and energy security are shaping how we respond to these latest events.
Our family stands committed to reducing global emissions by achieving greater operational efficiencies and investing in new carbon-reduction technologies. We bear responsibility for stewarding the company along a sustainable pathway to accomplish these goals. Over the past 55 years, we have learned that doing the right thing usually isn’t the easiest thing, but it almost always pays back in the long-term. This year, we took a huge bet on an emerging technology that scientists say must scale in order to hit our climate goals: carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). This CCS project is the largest of its kind in the world, and when operational will pave the way for deep emissions reductions in energy intensive industries.
In addition to the corporate ingenuity required to solve these challenges, we need a regulatory environment that supports domestic energy production. We urge our government leaders to work with the independent oil & gas producers of America to create an energy system that prioritizes energy security. Only through collective action will we create an energy system that makes sense for consumers, producers, and the environment.
We are proud of our long history in harnessing our nation’s natural resources to foster prosperity, and we embrace the opportunity to lead the world into a cleaner, more secure future.
– The Hamm Family
Letter from the President & CEO
At Continental Resources, we are a proud leader in the most important industry to impact quality of life for humankind – providing affordable, reliable, abundant, clean energy for the world.
At Continental, we helped America achieve energy independence, led the efforts to lift the oil export ban benefiting both American and global consumers, and led the charge to create a new global pricing marker for American crude oil to provide a less volatile pricing mechanism. We were the leading pioneer in horizontal drilling – the first to develop an entire oilfield with this technology. We will always be a proud advocate for our domestic energy industry and all of its benefits, including the life-changing virtues it delivers.
These virtues of American energy are incredible: lower energy prices for every American family, trillions of dollars flowing back to America as a result of producing American petroleum versus imported petroleum. This provides energy independence, giving us essential economic and geopolitical security.
Our commitment to ESG leadership continues to be paramount. We delivered our best-ever, record-setting safety performance in 2021. As we stated in our 2019 ESG Report, we believe the existing ESG frameworks do not adequately consider the contributions the energy industry makes to the security and well-being of the United States and the rest of the world. As a result, in 2019 we adopted a framework that considers these contributions and presents a more societal view of the contributions oil and gas make to modern life. We have seen the ongoing events and war in Europe highlight this very issue. We remain committed to addressing the critical need for society to access the secure, reliable, affordable, clean energy we produce.
Continental Resources continues to set the bar as an industry leader in gas capture and with our commitment to responsibly producing the energy the world needs. One of our key focus areas is greenhouse gas and methane intensity reductions, in which we have made significant progress over the last several years.
In March of this year, Continental announced an investment in Summit Carbon Solutions’ project which aims to capture and sequester up to 20 million metric tons of CO2 per year. By way of comparison, Continental’s 2021 Scope 1 emissions were approximately 2.5 million metric tons. This project, which is expected to be operational by 2024, will be the largest carbon capture and sequestration project of its kind in the world. As the world talks long-range carbon management strategies, Continental is focused on delivering near-term results.
In conjunction with our societal commitment, we continue to expand our diversity, equity and inclusion program, elevating our focus in providing training, education and cultural awareness to foster a healthy environment for mutual respect and understanding. Our efforts have been recognized on many fronts and in 2021, we proudly received the Energy ESG Top Performer award from Hart Energy for our innovations in our environmental impact, social efforts, community contributions, leadership practices and culture.
As you’ll see throughout this report, Continental’s commitment to producing the energy our world needs while stewarding our natural resources is strong – just as it has been for 55 years. Our success would not be possible without the standout performance of our employees. Together, we will continue to lead the way.
Respectfully,
Bill Berry
President & Chief Executive Officer
