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Oil and Gas

As the events of the Arab Spring have shown, it is vital for oil and gas firms to have a full-spectrum of awareness of emerging political and societal risks across their business value chain.

The world’s largest energy firms use Maplecroft’s extensive range of products, tools and consulting services to identify, monitor and manage extra-financial risks to protect their investments and flourish in the future growth environment.

This portfolio of products and services enables oil and gas companies, as well as financial service companies that invest in them, to identify, monitor and manage the entire range of ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ risks at national, regional and site-specific levels – across all countries.

Maplecroft also offers an extensive range of professional services to help oil and gas companies to develop strategies and management systems to reduce risk exposures. This includes, custom online risk calculators, bespoke risk assessments, human rights due diligence, political risk monitoring and comprehensive supply chain risk management tools.

Maps and indices

With over 160+ risk indices and interactive maps, Maplecroft analyses the most pressing issues impacting the agro-commodities sector down to site specific levels. Indices and maps include: climate change vulnerability; natural hazards; water stress; food security; corruption; legal and regulatory risks; political risks; poverty and development; and reputational threats arising from complicity with labour rights and human rights violations in the supply chain.

Maplecroft’s indices and interactive maps are available individually or can be accessed through seven thematic risk atlases, which aggregate key issues.

Atlases

Maplecroft’s Atlases are updated annually and provide maps, indices and scorecards for up to 197 countries, as well as analysis of the key issues, methodologies and data sources.

  • Global Risks Atlas

    Assesses the strategic risks that impact the global value chains of business, as well as the ability of national institutions to mitigate them. Includes 36 risk indices and interactive maps assessing macroeconomics; security; resource security; climate change; and pandemics; governance risks and societal resilience.

  • Political Risk Atlas

    Appraisal of traditional political risks including: conflict, terrorism, rule of law and the regulatory and business environment; as well as structural challenges affecting political stability such as resource security, climate change and human rights. Includes 50 political risk indices, maps and scorecards for 197 countries.

  • Legal and Regulatory Environment Risk Atlas

    An ideal tool to help organisations identify and monitor legal and regulatory risks, such as corruption, corporate governance, regulatory framework, respect for property rights. Includes 21 indices and maps, scorecards for 173 countries, in addition to an assessment of the implementation of ten key legal instruments.

  • Human Rights Risk Atlas

    Analyses 31 different human rights violation categories – including seven composite indices covering human security, labour rights and protection, civil and political rights, access to remedy, complicity and lack of rule of law, reporting environment, and overall human rights protection – across 197 countries.

  • Climate Change and Environmental Risk Atlas

    Provides comprehensive analysis of the key risks to business in the areas of climate change vulnerability and adaption; emissions and energy use; environmental regulation; and ecosystem services. It includes 23 interactive maps and indices, which have been developed to identify, evaluate and compare climate change and environmental risks down to 25km2 worldwide and provide insight into current and emerging trends.

  • Natural Hazards Risk Atlas

    Evaluates the risks and resilience to the occurrence of natural hazard events in 197 countries. Includes indices and interactive subnational maps of 12 natural hazard risks, as well as scorecards for all countries. The Atlas also measures overall economic exposure and socio-economic resilience to natural hazards.

  • Growth Markets Atlas

    Provides an evaluation of economic performance, investment conduciveness, recent structural reforms and projected future demographic trends, including growth of middle class consumers. Maplecroft divides its scoring across the three indices evaluating Growth Performance, Growth Environment and Growth Potential. The Atlas includes 17 indices and scorecards for 173 countries.

Reports and analysis

Maplecroft’s briefings and in-depth reports help oil and gas firms to monitor and manage a wide variety of operational and reputational risks across their value chain in consistent and comparable ways in all countries.



Maplecroft monitoring and reporting system

  • Baseline in-depth reports (25+ pages): Produced at the outset of the year or at an agreed alternate annual date to provide substantive background analysis and due diligence review of key issues and risks (the governance framework; political risk and violence; the economy; the regulatory and business environment; human rights and society; and natural hazards, environment and climate change). In addition the reports integrate GIS derived, sub-national maps and provide stakeholder viewpoints on risk and key recent events.
  • Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly Monitors (1 page scorecards for key watch countries): Offering quantitative country risk scores and trends of increasing, unchanged or decreasing risk across key risk areas and qualitative analysis of significant recent events and outlooks across the core risk areas. Developed to focus on issues driving changes to risk scores and our forecast for the next quarter including implications for sectors.
  • Trigger briefings (2-4 pages): Concise analysis and forecasts that are activated when the risk within a country changes significantly, as shown in the monitor. These focus on the issues driving changes to risk scores and the implications for business.
  • In-depth update reports or tailored specific reports (25+ pages): Produced when more in-depth analysis is required on the back of the trigger briefing and pertaining to sectors or business specific

Issue specific reports

  • Energy infrastructure reports: In-depth analysis of the key risks affecting oil and gas companies stemming from inadequate or insecure energy infrastructure within a country. Analysis includes an in-depth assessment of the effectiveness of a country’s energy infrastructure alongside security risks, such as terrorism, affecting assets such as pipelines and refineries. These reports can also contain subnational mapping of the energy infrastructure and terrorist attacks, as well as a breakdown of all attacks by cost and target, as well as year by year trends.
  • Unconventional energy reports: Comprehensive analysis of the key risks affecting the extraction of unconventional energy sources, such as shale gas and oil sands. Includes in-depth assessments of the key legal and regulatory developments affecting the sector, governance risks, environmental concerns, stakeholder viewpoints, key recent events and case studies. Subnational maps of protected areas, water stress and indigenous areas provide further insights into risks to individual projects and investments.
  • Biofuel reports: Essential insights into the key risks affecting the production of biofuels. In-depth reports provide country-level analysis of the regulatory environment, governance risks, labour rights and human rights violations, climate change and environmental issues, such as water stress and drought. Analysis is complemented by subnational issue maps featuring overlays of plantations and processing plants, as well as stakeholder views and a catalogue of key recent events.
  • Supply chain integrity briefings: Detailed evaluations of pertinent operational and reputational risks to oil and gas companies sourcing from or outsourcing to key countries within their value chain. Topics include: labour rights and protection, civil and political risks, corruption risks and environmental protections.
  • Stakeholder reports: These reports identify and map stakeholders most interested and affected by oil and gas projects in sensitive environments. They highlight and rank the most significant stakeholders and influencers, such as political figures, indigenous communities and NGOs, as well as their main concerns, potential campaign activities / points and geographical presence. The reports suggest possible routes for engagement with these stakeholders to minimise both reputational and business risks associated with exploration, drilling and project development or operation activity.

Further products for the oil and gas sector are available via the Global Risks Portfolio and include, labour standards reports, corruption risk briefings, election monitors and quarterly political risk and human rights monitors.

Maplecroft’s products are available for all countries and can be tailored to client specifications.

Interactive Tools

Custom country / sovereign risk calculators enable oil and gas companies to select and compare risk indices to create scorecards that quantify risk for all countries. The Interactive dashboard also allows oil and gas companies to combine their own compliance and country risk data with Maplecroft’s indices in a central repository where they can create bespoke indices, maps and risk scorecards using a customised online interface.

Services

Maplecroft’s professional services help oil and gas firms to minimise risk exposure and, through engagement and an understanding of the issues, gain the support of local stakeholders. We conduct bespoke risk assessments, human rights due diligence, political risk monitoring and offer an award-winning sustainability reporting service alongside client-specific advisory services.

Maplecroft’s products are available for all countries and issues and can be tailored to client specifications. For more details visit Maplecroft’s Global Risks Portfolio.

Specialised services for oil and gas companies:

  • Measuring risks to regime stability and to personnel, asset and infrastructure
  • Sustainability and social impact assessment, reporting and policy development
  • Human rights, political risk and ESG due diligence
  • Project risk identification and assessment, mapping and monitoring
  • Stakeholder mapping, engagement strategy and consultation support
  • Human rights, labour standards and corruption analysis and auditing
  • Custom-built GIS (Geographic Information System) global and project-specific mapping capability
  • Sub-national risk mapping of piracy, terrorism, land use conflicts and other factors
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01Oil and gas major strategic risk quarterly monitoring system

Maplecroft is currently helping a global oil and gas major to reduce and manage risks in a number of its key operating countries, while also helping it develop greater stakeholder support and develop a reputation for ethically sound oil and gas production.

Our work to date includes:

  • In depth reports to understand the baseline business environment from a risk and responsibility perspective, covering political risk, legal and regulatory environment, societal and environmental risks.
  • Bespoke risk monitoring and the creation of a tailored online ‘dashboard’ to allow the firm to instantly analyse a weighted range of key risk indicators – linked to its own risk register.
  • Quarterly monitors and regular briefings, which are triggered whenever selected key indicators show sudden changes – positive or negative – across a range of key operating countries and “watch countries”.
  • Ongoing consulting and advisory service to help the company identify and rapidly respond to emerging risks and opportunities in order to anticipate and prevent problems.
  • Developing a company-wide strategy to minimise country level risks – including those related to security, governance, the regulatory environment, human rights and the environment.

02Oil and gas major – forecasting and mitigating the risk of resource nationalism in Argentina

Monitoring emerging risks in Argentina for a multinational hydrocarbons producer, including the events leading up to, and following, the nationalisation of YPF by the Argentinian government. Maplecroft’s reporting system enabled the company to identify and plan for threats to its in-country continuity well in advance of a major event.

  • Production of a baseline in-depth report on Argentina providing comprehensive analysis and subnational GIS maps of the key risks and issues for the company’s operations and interests.
  • The baseline report was updated with a quarterly monitor, which identified the rising risk of resource nationalism, especially in regard to Repsol’s shares in YPF, two weeks before the event.
  • Ongoing monitoring of the situation resulted in a briefing that was triggered by the nationalisation of YPF, which offered analysis of the implications for the oil and gas sector, the investment climate as a whole, as well as forecasts of likely scenarios.

03Oil and gas major – stakeholder engagement and analysis

Producing a range of stakeholder reports for an oil and gas company looking at potential opposition and support for hydrocarbons projects in the Arctic, Greenland, the North Sea and the Barents Sea in order to assess the viability of investments.

  • In-depth analysis of stakeholder viewpoints and of the potential influence that a wide range of stakeholders – including NGOs, indigenous groups, governments, political parties and regulatory bodies – may have on current or prospective oil and gas projects in environmentally sensitive operating locations.
  • The reports couple research with interviews with key stakeholders to address the company’s desire to understand both the community, NGO, political and regulatory context, as it evaluates potential new operations in the Arctic, Greenland, the North Sea and the Barents Sea.
  • Reports include recommendations on how companies can best engage with these varied stakeholders in order to win increased support for oil and gas projects.
  • The inclusion of sub-national maps of maritime boundaries, offshore blocks, infrastructure, protected areas and maritime pollution further highlight potential issues for investment.