Construction of a sustainability indicators system for offshore oil and gas production units

Production units located in the Brazilian marine environment are responsible for the production of 95.7% of oil and 78.8% of natural gas of Brazil causing economic, environmental, and social impacts motivating us to construct a system of indicators as a tool aimed to improve the sustainable management practice of these production units. To date, one of the tools most used by the oil industry is the sustainability report, oriented by guidelines from international organizations. However, these reports have a corporate character being unable to help the sustainability management of production units’ activities. The indicators were selected based on a systemic approach, using current knowledge on sustainability indicators, together with the survey of aspects relevant to the operation and management of offshore oil and gas production units. This paper describes the proposed indicators and presents the hierarchical structure of the system, built on the economic, environmental, social, and operational dimensions. The application of the proposed system of indicators, based on multicriterial and multiple decision-making analyses, validates a complex decision process, providing improved sustainable management of offshore production units by identifying points for which the necessary measures and actions can be implemented. Keywords: offshore oil and gas production; sustainability indicators; multicriteria and multiple decision-making analyses.