To understand and prioritise our sustainability issues, it was necessary to undertake a materiality assessment to evaluate our current approach to sustainability and revise it where necessary. To cover all aspects of the business, department managers were invited to attend a workshop to discuss and identify topics that are important to our stakeholders and have an impact on our business. The outcome of our materiality assessment was subsequently reviewed by senior management and used to develop meaningful sustainability objectives to positively address those material topics. 

Presented here are some examples of how Stena Drilling is actively working towards achieving these objectives, thereby ensuring its activities contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

EMISSIONS TO AIR AND WATER 

Stena Drilling have maintained ISO 14001 certification since January 2003, demonstrating our commitment to the continual improvement of our well-established environmental management system to enhance environmental performance. In January 2022, Stena Drilling was the first drilling contractor to be awarded ISO 50001 certification for our entire rig fleet and Aberdeen onshore support facility.  

Stena Drilling has put in place various energy efficiency measures to ensure we comply with and often exceed the requirements of the ISO standard. 

We continually monitor the emissions and fuel consumption on our fleet, using data received from various tags on the vessels. From this data, we can monitor the consumption and emissions over a pre-determined period of time or activity, which we then use to amend operational behaviours to reduce our fuel consumption in a safe manner. This data is available to view on the rig as well as remotely at the 

Aberdeen office, which ensures that every-one in the organisation can positively contribute to emission reduction through challenging our fuel data. 

Recent success stories include Stena DrillMAX and Stena IceMAX, where we use newly installed Reverse Osmosis (RO) units to produce fresh water which reduces the boiler fuel consumption on each vessel by approximately 3m³ / day (1m³ of fuel oil = 3.12T CO2). Following this success, we now plan to install RO units on Stena Forth, Stena Carron, and Stena Don, which will reduce our overall fleet consumption by approximately 8% from just one equipment upgrade! 

As part of Stena Drilling’s Energy Efficiency Management Plan (EEMP for those who love acronyms), the hydraulic lifting system on our drillships was identified as one of the key areas where we could become more efficient. To reduce fuel consumption due to the hydraulic lifting system, specialist software was developed to calculate the number of hydraulic pumps required to perform various drilling operations. The system also shows how efficient the driller has been when following the recommended setup, allowing us to track the success of our emission reduction measures. The system has been successfully installed on Stena IceMAX and Stena Forth, where we are seeing fantastic results. We have calculated that a CO2 reduction in excess of 2,000Te per year can be achieved using the Cylinder Hoisting Rig (CHR) Lift Calculator upgrade software per vessel.  The Lift Calculator software will be installed on Stena Carron and Stena DrillMAX during their next SPS.    

Earlier this year, Stena Drilling commissioned a feasibility study on the use of alternative fuels. The alternatives were green methanol and ammonia. A detailed report has been received, and this is now being studied by our engineering team.

Along with our colleagues at Stena Teknik, we have also studied the use of hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO) which is also known as ‘synthetic diesel’. Produced from a variety of vegetable and animal sources that do not compete with edible crops, HVO can significantly reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 90%. We will continue this study, however, currently, there is not enough global supply to cover demand, and the cost is approximately 3 x that of conventional diesel.

Our emission reduction objectives do not just consider our offshore fleet. This year at our Aberdeen office, we have installed solar panels on the roof of the training centre and warehouse. These panels produce approximately 229,000 kWh of power per year, which is the equivalent of 10 4-bedroom all-electric homes.

Our innovative offshore and onshore crews are continually developing new suggestions for further fuel reduction measures, and as an organisation, we believe that as a result of that, we are the ‘Sustainable Drilling Contractor’ of choice required for future oil and gas demands as part of a balanced global energy portfolio.

HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELLBEING

Stena Drilling has a robust safety culture that is governed by our Stena Management System which is constantly reviewed and updated. Our suite of management of risk tools and control of work allows us to operate safely anywhere in the world to the same high standards expected of a Stena Drilling vessel. 

To assess our performance against our peers, we benchmark ourselves against the IADC LTIF (Lost Time Incident Frequency) and TRIF (Total Recordable Incident Frequency) annual figures, regularly demonstrating best-in-class performance. We regularly receive feedback from Clients, and visiting 3rd Party contractors, regarding the positive safety culture onboard our vessels driven by our one TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) ethic which sets us apart from our competitors.

CYBERSECURITY

The Stena Drilling Organisation is certified in Cyber Essentials, a UK Government backed scheme that helps protect the business against a range of the most common cyber-attacks. The five controls tested are firewalls, secure configuration, user access control, malware protection, and patch management with the scope encompassing all sites and all networks.

Furthermore, our vessel control systems have received DNV Cybersecure class notation approval. Cyber Secure Essential (+) notation covers all essential control systems onboard our vessel including DP Class 3 propulsion, drilling, and blowout prevention. Cyber Secure class notation provides a framework to verify, improve and demonstrate our cyber resilience.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ENGAGEMENT

Social Engagement for Stena Drilling is vital. We currently have 2 drillships operating in Guyana where we employ 142 Guyanese locals (135 offshore). Our targeted employment rates for Guyana will see this rise to 165 by the end of 2022. We recently held an HSE (Health, Safety & Environmental workshop where we welcomed 92 Guyanese personnel. This 1-day event introduced Guyanese personnel to Stena Drilling, our safety culture, policies, and procedures and included participation from the Ministry of Natural Resources.

IN SUMMARY

Our sustainability objectives are a roadmap to improving our safety, environmental and social performance. Stena Drilling will continue to support these Sustainability Objectives and will review and update them on a regular basis. As an energy responsible Company, we continue to identify improvements in all aspects of our operations with our goal to improve the quality of human lives, protect ecosystems, and preserve natural resources for future generations.