What we care about and why.
Our ESG Reporting Approach
We believe domestic oil and natural gas exploration is fundamental to the well-being of our nation and the world. We further believe it should be done responsibly, safely, and with integrity.
Continental is proud to present our approach to Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) issues. In developing this approach, we conducted a thorough assessment to identify and prioritize those topics that would have the most significant impact on the operations of our company.
Our assessment included:
- Research
- Peer benchmarking
- Interviews with internal and external stakeholders
Additionally, we looked at industry guidance from:
- The Oil and Gas Industry Guidance on Voluntary Sustainability Reporting developed by IPIECA, API, and IOGP (4th Edition, 2020)
- The Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Standards
- The Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD 2017)
- The Sustainability Standards Board (SASB) industry standard for exploration and production of oil and gas (2018)
We believe our ESG program has been a major contributor to the long-term success of the company. We also believe the current frameworks of many ESG statements are inadequate and do not tell the whole story. For example, they completely ignore the massive contributions hydrocarbons make to the human element of modern life – from powering the economy to ensuring the health and well-being of our communities. Nothing is more important to our shared future than an affordable, reliable supply of hydrocarbon-based energy. Additionally, most of these frameworks are founded on a presumption that companies that explore for and produce oil and natural gas have a limited future. Nothing could be further from the truth. The world’s energy consumption will depend on hydrocarbons for the foreseeable future.
That’s why we choose to implement a new, better framework, one that paints the whole picture, and gives our employees, the communities in which we operate, and our investors a more accurate view than other ESG frameworks of how we approach our business, and why we do what we do.