HE Dr al-Sada with awardees for excellence in sustainability reporting and performance. PICTURE: Anas Khalid

By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter

Qatar’s energy sector witnessed a 3% reduction in natural gas consumer per tonne of production, more than 2% in natural gas usage, 13% in flaring and 10% in per capita electricity consumption in 2013.

Given the sector’s increased levels of production, energy consumption continues to rise together with greenhouse gas emissions, albeit only slightly, according to 2013 Report on Sustainability within the Qatar Energy and Industry Sector, which was released by HE the Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada.

The report, which provides consolidated information and analysis on the performance and approach of 36 companies on a range of economic, environmental and social topics -- has been produced by the Qatar Petroleum Health, Safety and Environment Regulations and Enforcement Directorate (DG) as part of the sector-wide Sustainable Development Industry Reporting (SDIR) programme.

The focus remains on energy efficiency, which for the majority of the companies has improved slightly, it said, adding “the sector has also achieved reduction in natural gas usage as well as significant drop in flaring, with clear targets for further reductions by many companies in 2014/15.”

The report also highlighted 19% increase in community investment spending and the sector’s investment in social and community based projects amounted to $143mn in 2013. These investments covered education, health and safety, sports, environment, science and technology, arts and culture.

On economic performance, the report said a total of 1,174 new jobs were created and the sector saw a 6.4% increase in revenues to $153bn.

“A range of multi-billion dollar oil, gas, helium, refining and petrochemical projects are currently underway, which will further expand the sector’s output in the years ahead,” the report said.

On health and safety, it said there was 16% reduction in contractor lost time incident rate (LTIR) and Total Recordable Incidence Rate (TRIR), 13% in employee occupational illness and 15% in employee TRIR.

In 2013, the sector completed more than 356mn man-hours in which there were a total of 529 recordable personal safety incidents, a 22% reduction from 2012.

About the environment, the sector reported 36% of waste recycled, which was 2% short of the 2016 national target of 38%. Moreover, there was 2.2% reduction in fresh water used and the sector recycled 24.5mn cu m of water. Also there was 9% reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions.

The reporting on workforce indicators reached 83% completeness and from the data submitted, the sector workforce grew 3.1%, leading to a stable Qatarisation rate of 25% and female employment rate of 10%.

The amount of training delivered to employees rose by 169,211 hours to reach an average of 30 hours of training per employee.

Qatar Petroleum also awarded yesterday a total of 12 companies for their initiatives towards sustainability reporting and performance in 2013.

A total of eight were awarded for their excellence in sustainability management, operational health and safety, environmental management and socio-economic and corporate social responsibility activities, and another four received special awards for their innovative projects and programmes.

The companies were honoured by HE Dr al-Sada in the presence of HE the Minister of Development Planning and Statistics Dr Saleh Mohamed Salem al-Nabit and HE the Minister of Environment Ahmed Amer Mohamed al-Humaidi. BUSINESS Page 1