EnLink provides critical services that help Americans and people around the world access reliable energy. We do this while having processes and procedures in place to comply with all applicable environmental laws and regulations and, in many instances, going above and beyond what’s required.
EnLink works 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 meet or exceed applicable environmental laws and regulations. We strive to prevent spills and releases, while minimizing adverse impacts should they occur, and in 2022, EnLink achieved the lowest number of spills and releases in our history for a second consecutive year¹.
Environmental Stewardship and Biodiversity
EnLink looks for ways to minimize our environmental footprint. This includes restoring construction areas, reusing and recycling, controlling pollution, and conserving resources.
EnLink takes an environmentally sound approach to biodiversity for operation of new and existing assets and construction projects. First, we attempt to avoid environmentally sensitive areas in the project design process; secondly, we minimize our impact to land, water, air, and wildlife; thirdly, we restore impacted habitats or other environmentally sensitive areas when avoidance is not practicable; and lastly, we operate our assets in a manner that respects the environment and minimizes the potential for ecological disruption. We strive to communicate and coordinate with community members, landowners, and regulators on conservation approaches and efforts.
Examples of how EnLink 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 Recycling
Equipment reuse and refurbishment is an important part of EnLink’s operational excellence and sustainability strategy to drive significant financial savings and limit waste. We focus on repurposing and refurbishing idle or underutilized materials and equipment to be used in new ways at other facilities, including compressors, pipe, tanks, and more. In 2022, EnLink completed approximately $85.7 million of equipment reuse and refurbishing initiatives.
One innovative and cost-effective way EnLink reuses materials is through plant relocations. In 2022, EnLink completed Project Phantom, our second successful plant relocation in which we moved underutilized natural gas processing equipment from Oklahoma to the rapidly growing Midland Basin in the Permian. Due to the success of this and our Project War Horse relocation (completed in 2021), EnLink announced its third plant relocation in February 2023 and the first that will benefit EnLink’s Delaware Basin assets. This “Tiger II” project will move a plant acquired in 2022 in 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.
Each of these projects repurposed existing equipment, an efficient approach that decreases the need for the production of new equipment. Relocating a plant not only utilizes existing materials, but it represents a cost savings of approximately 50% over illustrative 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. The Reportable Environmental Incident Rate (REIR)² is part of our 2022 Safety and Sustainability Scorecard, which is one component of our Short-Term Incentive (STI) Program for employees (click here to learn more). Similar to Total Reportable 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. EnLink’s 2022 REIR was 0.34, below our 2021 rate, as well as our prior three-year average, and 66% below our 2022 target.
Environmental Management System
EnLink’s environmental performance is driven by our environmental management system, enabling both managerial oversight and employee focus on key environmental areas. We follow the continuous improvement process of plan-do-check-act to ensure that environmental standards and considerations are a priority in project planning, emergency response planning, and employee training. We also report and investigate incidents, implement compliance processes, and track our performance to allow for improvement.
EnLink is continuing to focus on improving the efficiency of our environmental reporting, emissions calculation, benchmarking, and improvement project tracking through the development of a sustainability management system. Tracking 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 near real-time status reports for analysis, quantification, and decision making.
- While we are proud of our 2022 record, EnLink reported a spill in 2023 due to an above-ground equipment issue. EnLink worked with applicable regulators on this incident, and, as of the date of this publication, has not incurred any notices of violation. Additionally, EnLink has completed clean-up efforts associated with this spill, conducted a thorough investigation, and taken steps to improve our processes.
- EnLink’s REIR metric does not include incidents caused by external events or outside third parties.
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The information and data (collectively, “Information”) provided in EnLink’s 2022 Sustainability Report (“Report”) reflects content as of and for the period ending December 31, 2022, 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 1, 2023, and EnLink has 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 not expressly 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 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 of the disclosures required under U.S. federal securities laws, which have distinct and specific concepts of materiality.