From the C-suite to the sea suite: Rethinking frontier offshore petroleum amid environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and climate change realities

Offshore petroleum operations in the United States Gulf of Mexico have signaled toward expansion in scale and complexity over the next decade, despite climate change commitments and the broader low-carbon energy transition. Consequently, the operational risk exposure endured by safety, environmental, and social receptors may increase with the simultaneous persistence of climate impacts and intensification of offshore extraction activities. Moreover, although the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster off the coast of Louisiana influenced reform and a wealth of academic research, recent scientific consensus has identified persistent systemic gaps in safety culture, regulatory oversight and supply chain management, as corrective action has stagnated amid slow regulatory initiative, industry implementation and incentivization deficiencies.

With the emergence and momentum of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) expectations imposed by financial sectors on publicly traded petroleum companies, industry faces increased pressure when considering corporate value generation, operational integrity and sustainability. The implementation of ESG can be a complex endeavor and highlights the importance of corporate and field-level process integration, and by extension, effective supply chain management. Accordingly, we discuss the relative persistent operational gaps identified in literature, the perspectives of key stakeholders; and the potential implications for social, environmental, and safety risk receptors pertaining to petroleum operations in the United States Gulf of Mexico. This article is presented as a ‘perspective’ piece, offering a critical synthesis of current challenges and opportunities in offshore petroleum ESG integration. Through this lens, we highlight the need for gap closure and risk mitigation, outlining areas of focus that are, in our view, both realistic and effectual. We discuss realistic and actionable pathways for bridging ESG implementation gaps and enhancing risk mitigation, with the goal of informing future research and policy development.