EnLink provides access to reliable energy through our midstream services. We do this while utilizing processes and procedures to comply with applicable environmental laws and regulations and seeking to reduce our operational impacts to the environment.
We work to improve our environmental performance through developing and incorporating innovative solutions, processes, technologies, and tools to reduce our environmental impact and minimize or avoid impacts to air, water, land, and wildlife. Our dedicated environmental team maintains an active field presence, working closely with operations and project teams to aid in risk management and to understand and comply with applicable environmental laws and regulations. We strive to prevent spills and releases and to minimize adverse impacts should they occur.
Environmental Stewardship and Biodiversity
We look for ways to minimize our environmental footprint, including restoring construction areas, reusing and refurbishing equipment, controlling pollution, and conserving resources.
We consider biodiversity in the planning and operation of new and existing assets and construction projects. First, we attempt to avoid environmentally sensitive areas in the project design process; second, we seek to minimize our impact to land, water, air, and wildlife; third, we make efforts to restore impacted habitats or other environmentally sensitive areas when avoidance is not practical; and lastly, we work to operate our assets in a manner that respects the environment and minimizes the potential for ecological disruption. We seek to communicate and coordinate with community members, landowners, and regulators on conservation approaches and efforts.
Examples of how we may minimize our impact when planning, constructing, or operating projects include narrowing right of way and construction workspace widths, using horizontal directional drilling to avoid surface impacts, and restoring the environment when impacts are unavoidable through replanting of vegetation or offsetting the impact by acquiring wetland mitigation credits from government and environmental agencies.
Reuse and Refurbishment
Equipment reuse and refurbishment is an important part of our operational excellence and sustainability strategy to limit waste while also driving significant financial savings. We focus on repurposing and refurbishing idle or underutilized materials and equipment, including compressors, pipe, tanks, and more, to be used in new ways at other facilities. In 2023, we completed approximately $101 million of equipment reuse and refurbishing initiatives.
One innovative and cost-effective way we reuse materials is through gas processing plant relocations. In February 2023, EnLink announced its third plant relocation and the first that will benefit EnLink’s Delaware Basin assets. The “Tiger II” plant relocation project moved a gas processing plant from North Texas to the Permian’s Delaware Basin where it will increase our total processing capacity, helping to meet our producers’ plans in the area. The Tiger II project commenced midyear 2023 and became operational in the second quarter of 2024.
These projects repurpose existing equipment, which we believe is an efficient approach that reduces the need for new equipment. Our utilizing existing materials by relocating gas processing plants represents cost savings of approximately 50% over similar new-build costs.
Reportable Environmental Incident Rate
To better benchmark our environmental performance against our peers, we developed an internal environmental metric to track state and federal agency reportable spills and releases. Our Reportable Environmental Incident Rate (REIR)¹ is part of our 2023 Safety and Sustainability Scorecard, which is one component of our Short-Term Incentive (STI) Program for employees (click here to learn more). Like the Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR), this metric reflects the number of agency reportable environmental incidents multiplied by 200,000 (the average hours worked by 100 employees in a year) and divided by the actual total number of employee workhours. We ended 2023 with an REIR score of 1.31, which was higher than our 2022 REIR but lower than the three prior years.
The increase from 2022 to 2023 was due to a crude oil spill in 2023 in our Permian Basin region related to an above-ground equipment issue. The event occurred on private land and did not impact any environmentally sensitive areas. In response to the event, we quickly activated our emergency action plans, made proper agency notifications, and began our remediation process, which follows state regulatory guidelines, for the impacted area. Remediation efforts related to this event were completed midyear 2023. We conducted an investigation of the event, and our Operations and Engineering teams have taken steps to improve our processes based on lessons learned. As of the date of this publication, EnLink has not received any notices of violation relative to this event.
The Environmental, Engineering, and Operations teams continue to focus on efforts to eliminate and minimize unplanned releases across our assets.
EnLink continues to focus on improving the efficiency of our processes for environmental reporting, emissions calculation, benchmarking, and improvement project tracking through the development of a sustainability management system. Tracking performance data in a single system structured around environmental data will allow for greater visibility and improved tracking and transparency. The system will support both compliance reporting and emissions reduction project planning and execution and will enable us to run status reports for analysis, quantification, and decision making.
- EnLink’s REIR metric does not include incidents caused by external events or outside third parties.
More in the "Responsible Operations" section:
- Responsible Operations Overview
- Energy Use and Emissions
- Carbon Solutions
- GoalZERO Safety
- Emergency Preparedness
- Asset Integrity Management
- Operational Excellence
Other sections:
The information and data (collectively, “Information”) provided in EnLink’s 2023 Sustainability Report (“Report”) reflects content as of and for the period ending December 31, 2023, unless otherwise indicated. Such Information in this Report is for informational purposes only. EnLink does not make, and hereby expressly disclaims, any representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the Information contained herein. This Report is being published on August 6, 2024, and EnLink undertakes no obligation or duty to (1) update or correct the Information, (2) provide additional details regarding the Information, or (3) continue to provide the Information, in any form, in the future. EnLink reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to modify, update, change, delete, or supplement the Information from time to time without notice. The Information should not be interpreted as any form of guaranty or assurance of future results or trends. EnLink is expressly not incorporating by reference any of the Information into any filing of EnLink made with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission or in any other filing, report, application, or statement made by EnLink to any federal, state, or local governmental authority. This Report contains information based upon EnLink’s role in the broader economy, environment, and society and is presented for the purpose of responding to issues that are important to a wide range of interested parties. While events, scenarios, and efforts discussed in this report may be significant, any significance should not be read as necessarily rising to the level of materiality pertaining to disclosures required under U.S. federal securities laws, which have distinct and specific concepts of materiality.