Environmental record
On April 11, 2007, ConocoPhillips became the first U.S. oil company to join the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, an alliance of big business and environmental groups. In January 2007, the partnership advised President George W. Bush that mandatory emissions caps would be needed to reduce the flow of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In 2007, ConocoPhillips announced it would spend $150 million that year on alternative and unconventional energy sources, up from $80 million in 2006.[79] However, ConocoPhillips left the U.S. Climate Action Partnership in February 2010, at the same time as BP and Caterpillar Inc. left the partnership.[80]
ConocoPhillips is a signatory participant of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. In 2016, ConocoPhillips was ranked as being among the 12th best of 92 oil, gas, and mining companies on indigenous rights in the Arctic.[81] In May 2020, it was reported that the company was planning new drillings in Alaska's North Slope which would affect the life of 400 in the Native Village of Nuiqsut.[82] According to the 2021 Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index (AERI), ConocoPhillips is ranked as the fourth most environmentally responsible company out of 120 oil, gas, and mining companies involved in resource extraction north of the Arctic Circle.[83]
In 1990, ConocoPhillips agreed to pay $23 million to buy 400 homes and compensate families in Ponca City, Oklahoma, who said its refinery gave them cancer and other illnesses.[84]
In June 2011, ConocoPhillips China Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of ConocoPhillips, was responsible for the 2011 Bohai bay oil spills in Bohai Bay.[85]
In 2015, ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 agreed to pay $11.5 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that hundreds of their gas stations violated California anti-pollution laws since 2006. The civil complaint, filed in January 2013, alleged that the companies violated state laws on the operation and maintenance of underground gasoline storage tanks at more than 560 gas stations in the state. These violations included failing to properly maintain leak detection devices, testing secondary containment systems, conducting monthly inspections and training employees in proper protocol.[86]
In May 2019, ConocoPhillips settled a lawsuit with homeowners in northwestern Oklahoma City who accused the company of polluting their soil and water to such a degree that no trees or flowers will grow.[87]
In May 2017, ConocoPhillips agreed to a $39 million settlement to resolve complaints brought by New Jersey over groundwater contamination. ConocoPhillips was one of 50 companies named in a 2007 lawsuit filed against manufacturers, distributors and other industrial users of the gasoline additive MTBE, found in groundwater at locations throughout New Jersey.[88]
Bobby Berk, one of the stars from Netflix's "Queer Eye," spoke out against ConocoPhillips' water pollution in Missouri, saying that there were so many chemicals at one point, they could "actually light a glass of our water on fire".[89]
According to the Political Economy Research Institute, ConocoPhillips ranked 13th among U.S. corporate producers of air pollution.[90]
In 2013, ConocoPhillips had the "leakiest" methane in operations compared to its peers.[91]
In 2016, ConocoPhillips settled with 30 families near Oklahoma City who alleged their drinking water was poisoned by years of improper oil field waste disposal.[92]
In February 2022, ConocoPhillips announced a pilot program to sell its flare gas to a company operating a bitcoin mine in the Bakken Formation region of North Dakota as part of a company initiative to reduce routine flaring to zero by 2030.[93] In 2021 and 2022, an index constructed by researchers at the University of Cambridge showed that bitcoin mining consumed more electricity during the course of the year than the entire nations of Argentina (a G20 country) and the Netherlands.[94][95][96]
ConocoPhillips reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 at 16,200 Kt (-4,300 /-21% y-o-y).[97] Importantly, the figure does not include Scope 3 end-use emissions resulting from the consumption of fossil fuels produced by the company.
