Sustainability

Archer’s commitment to sustainability is to make responsible business decisions that generates value while protecting our planet, promoting human rights and contributing to a sustainable future.

Archer is embracing the shift towards lower emissions, reduced carbon footprints, continued focus on Health, Safety and Environment (HSE), diversity and good governance. HSE performance has long been a key metric for measuring and evaluating our performance and continue to be one of Archer’s key focus areas. We have already implemented tailored ESG targets for each business unit.

Archer continues to maintain strong organizational governance and have zero tolerance for corruption and strong focus on conducting our business with high ethical standards. We will continue to plan for, monitor and assess the risks we face in the marketplace and respond proactively.

As a global organization Archer recognizes our responsibilities to sustainable development in all our business activities. Our responsibilities and commitments are described in our management system, Archer’s Code of Conduct and our guidelines.
We have established three overarching strategic directions for Archer. All our business units and cross divisional activities will be focused on supporting and developing:

  • Low carbon agenda
  • Resilient oil and gas offering
  • Green Energy

In 2022 Archer launched our roadmap to Net-Zero in 2050. We are committed to contributing to the ongoing energy transition. Through continuous development of new technologies and services we will reduce our energy consumption as a key partner in our clients’ low carbon agendas. With a broad portfolio of products and services within slot recovery and plug and abandonment, Archer is in a unique position to deliver lower carbon solutions to our clients. We will accomplish this with more efficient operations, developing cross synergies between Archer businesses, as well as employing complementary service providers. This directly reduces emissions, reduces carbon footprint, and improves industry sustainability over traditional methods.

In 2022, Archer became carbon neutral in all locations outside Argentina. (GHG protocol scope 1 & 2)
To achieve carbon neutrality on emissions related to facilities and vehicles outside of our Land Drilling operations, we:

  • Continue to focus on operational awareness to reduce energy consumption
  • Installed solar PV systems at our HQ in Stavanger Norway, with estimated annual production of ~600.000 kwh of electricity
  • Purchased electricity from guaranteed renewable sources both in Norway and the US
  • Planted a 3000 tree Climate Forest to compensate for remaining emissions

By 2030 we will reach a 30% global reduction in CO2 emissions, using 2018 as baseline. (GHG protocol scope 1 & 2) Our global roadmap and commitment is to become net-zero by 2050.
Our biggest challenge, and opportunity for improvement, are the emissions from our Land Drilling operations in Latin America. The power required to operate land drilling rigs is largely produced by diesel generators, which have a greater than desired carbon footprint. We have actions and initiatives ongoing to reduce energy consumption and emissions which are already producing savings. Long term we, like other heavy industries, will require new fuel and battery solutions and we will adapt as the solutions become available at scale.

Ongoing projects in Land Drilling:

  • Performing a study with Pan American Energy on electrification of our pulling rigs and connection to highline-power
  • Evaluating, together with clients, several electrification projects to connect drilling rigs to highline power
  • Implementing the use of fuel additives across our rig fleet
  • Performing a study to evaluate the utilization of alternative energy for drilling rigs
  • Testing of a mobile solar panel array in the field to reduce diesel generated energy
  • Installation of a solar PV system for our facilities

During 2024, and as a part of our CSRD readiness project, we will map out what upstream and downstream Scope 3 categories that are relevant for Archer. We will also map our scope 3 footprint, with a spend based approach and work together with our biggest vendors, in the categories with the highest emissions impact.

The majority part of our business is focused on brownfield development. Brownfield operations are in mature fields that have been developed, where infrastructure is in place, and the fields are producing. At this stage, the investments are typically smaller, but there is more certainty in that decision. In a market where we are likely to see less demand for oil and gas in the long term, oil and gas companies are more likely to prioritize spending in brownfield developments. We are confident Archer’s market position in brownfield services is a solid foundation for decades to come and will be more economically sustainable than our peers with greater exposure to the greenfield market. Based on current estimates, oil and gas will still be a part of the energy mix in 2050. More than 90% of Archer’s revenue comes from the brownfield segment, from production drilling to permanent P&A activities. Through organic growth, acquisitions and international expansion, Archer has developed the broadest and most advanced P&A offering in the industry, representing approximately 10% of our revenue today. Archer has a clear strategy to capture a large portion of the growing P&A market globally, through the combination of our technology, know-how and presence. It is expected that more than 3,000 wells will be plugged in Norway, UK, and Netherlands in the coming 15 years. Archer is well positioned to contribute to the permanent closure of the oil and gas wells on a global basis, using our technology and extensive track record to ensure a safe, environmentally sound, and lower carbon solution to the market.

Archer is evaluating concrete opportunities within the renewables and transition segments, either through acquisitions, partnerships, organic growth, or a combination thereof. Segments closest to our heritage are geothermal energy and carbon storage. These are segments with significant expected growth. Both these renewable areas require drilling and well services, which are core competence in Archer.

Our target is that renewables and energy transition activity will account for 35% of our revenue by 2040.

ENTERING THE GEOTHERMAL ENERGY MARKET
As a part of our long-term energy transition strategy, Archer acquired 50% of Iceland Drilling Company Ltd, an international deep geothermal drilling and integrated well service company. With this investment, Archer is entering into a new chapter in our energy transition strategy. Iceland Drilling has seven decades of operating experience and global competence in both high and low temperature geothermal environments, having drilled more than 500 deep geothermal wells globally since 1970. It owns a fleet of 5 hydraulic drilling rigs as well as 7 smaller units for district heating projects in Iceland. With the recent focus on renewable energy and the energy transition, we have taken our time to identify a company compatible with our core market offering. Geothermal drilling provides many growth opportunities with our existing asset base, experience, and cross synergies. Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source that offers a stable base load which is suitable to complement other more variable renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar.

The geothermal power market is part of the future energy mix and will be in a position to replace current fossil fuel energy production. According to IEA and industry experts, geothermal power generation is set to grow substantially over the next few decades, with the annual geothermal deep well-count expected to increase from 200 to 700 wells annually by 2030. In addition to the increase in deep wells, we believe that an increased focus on district heating in Europe will drive growth and technological advances in this segment. Given the multiple direct overlaps and synergies with Archer’s core services, the geothermal drilling and services market is an ideal fit for Archer.

CARBON STORAGE
In the carbon storage segment we see relevant opportunities for Archer. In 2022 we participated in the Northern Lights Project in Norway. This is Norway’s first license for CO2 storage on the Norwegian Continental Shelf with Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies as partners. We delivered our first project through our well services division. Looking forward, the upcoming Carbfix project in Iceland is an exciting opportunity for both Archer and Iceland Drilling. Approximately 200 onshore wells are planned to be drilled for CO2 storage, brought to Iceland on storage vessels and from local production. The wells will be drilled into a basalt formation where after injection the CO2 will eventually turn into stone. Iceland Drilling have already drilled one experimental well for carbon storage with additional three more contracted.