Sector Standard for Oil and Gas

A Standard for the low-carbon transition

The importance of this Standard

GRI 11: Oil and Gas Sector 2021 addresses the pressing need for consistent and complete reporting on the complexity of transparency demands facing the sector. Not only does it facilitate the disclosures related to the impacts of the sector's present-day operations, but also how oil and gas organizations are changing their ways of working in support of the future transition to a low-carbon economy.

Signposting the way for oil and gas companies to address their shared impacts on the economy, the environment and people, this Sector Standard supports any oil and gas organization – irrespective of location, specialism or size – to effectively disclose its most significant impacts, providing the information that stakeholders require to assess a company’s sustainability opportunities and risks. ​

​In effect for reporting from 1 January 2023, the GRI Oil and Gas Sector Standard 2021 is freely available for download now. We encourage its early adoption.​ This Standard is intended to be used with the revised GRI Universal Standards 2021 and the GRI Topic Standards. 

Basis for conclusions

The public comment period for the exposure draft of the Standard ran from 8 July to 6 October 2020. ​

​The Basis for conclusions for the GRI Oil and Gas Sector Standard 2021 provides a summary of the significant issues raised through public comments. A complete record of the received comments can be found here. It also provides a summary of how the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) responded to these comments based on the Working Group's discussions and recommendations.

About this project

The development of this standard was prioritized based on the sector’s widely documented impacts across economic, environmental, and social dimensions.​ An expert multi-stakeholder Working Group was appointed by the GSSB.​

Though the project originally intended to create a Standard applicable to oil, gas, and coal, during the course of the project, the GSSB decided to split its scope and develop separate standards instead – one for oil and gas, and one for coal. The development of these standards follows different timelines. For more information, please consult the meeting paper .​

The project follows the GSSB’s Due Process Protocol, the implementation of which will be overseen by the Due Process Oversight Committee.​ ​The Standard for coal was launched in 2022. Learn more and download GRI 12: Coal Sector 2022 on the project webpage.


Watch this short explainer video on GRI 11: Oil & Gas

For key documents, FAQs, resources and more, see the list at the bottom of this page. 

Latest news

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Related documents

GRI 11: Oil & Gas Sector Standard FAQ file 04 Oct 2021 English 153 KB
A Short Introduction to the GRI Standards file 04 Oct 2021 English 369 KB
GRI Sector Program Description file 07 Feb 2019 English 449 KB
Terms of Reference: GRI Project Working Group for the Oil, Gas, and Coal Sector file 27 Mar 2019 English 266 KB
Oil, Gas and Coal Sector Standard Project Proposal file 26 Mar 2019 English 322 KB
GSSB Terms of Reference file 18 Oct 2018 English 108 KB
GSSB Due Process Protocol 2018 file 18 Oct 2018 English 213 KB
GSSB Work Program 2020-2022 file 01 Dec 2020 English 221 KB
Basis for Conclusions for GRI 11: Oil and Gas Sector 2021 file 04 Oct 2021 English 365 KB

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