Social

Our focus

Our contribution to Kurdistan’s social and economic development is critical to our licence to operate and our long-term future success. Throughout our corporate history, we have been committed to creating significant local economic value by employing local people, supporting local suppliers and generating revenues for our host government from the Shaikan Field. We regularly engage with and invest in our local communities, as we continue to strengthen the relationships we have built in Kurdistan since 2007. We also continue to focus on making GKP a great place to work, embedding a culture underpinned by our corporate values.

Health, safety and wellbeing

The health, safety and wellbeing of our workforce and local communities is a priority. Safety is one of GKP’s six core values and integrated across all organisational levels and operational activities. We believe that no job is so urgent or important that it cannot be done safely, which is why we are committed to zero harm across all our business activities.

Health, safety, environment and quality (“HSEQ”) governance is a core responsibility for our executive team. Led by our Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”), the Board oversees our HSEQ strategy and receives regular updates on our performance via the Safety and Sustainability Committee. The Executive Committee addresses health and safety via ongoing operational meetings which include senior management meetings. Our Chief Operating Officer (“COO”) holds weekly health, safety and sustainability meetings with GKP’s Head of Safety and Sustainability to ensure that our HSEQ Action Plan, HSEQ-related metrics and daily actions are appropriately addressed. This includes upholding the principles and expectations outlined in Gulf Keystone’s Health, Safety, Security, Environment and Community Policy and our Code of Business Conduct.

Our Chief Operating Officer (“COO”) holds weekly health, safety and sustainability meetings with GKP’s Head of Safety and Sustainability to ensure that our HSEQ Action Plan, HSEQ-related metrics and daily actions are appropriately addressed. This includes upholding the principles and expectations outlined in Gulf Keystone’s Health, Safety, Security, Environment and Community Policy and our Code of Business Conduct.

Life saving rules

Embedded into our approach to safety are Gulf Keystone’s Life Saving Rules. These are based on the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers’ Life Saving Rules and provide all our people and contractors with practical life saving guidance required in the field. The nine Core Rules and 11 Supplementary Rules are regularly discussed and reinforced at safety briefings, highlighted in various places around our facilities and are reviewed on an ongoing basis to ensure they
remain front-of-mind for all our staff.

Our people

Our team of over 400 staff and contractors in Kurdistan and the UK are the lifeblood of our organisation. To support them, we are focused on fostering a safe, diverse and inclusive working environment that enables our people to thrive and develop their careers. We are also deeply committed to enhancing employment opportunities for local people in Kurdistan and we place a strong emphasis on hiring directly from our local communities in the Shaikan Field.

Our purpose and values

As a purpose-driven business, GKP exists to develop natural resources for the benefit of all stakeholders by delivering social and economic benefits by working safely and sustainably with integrity and respect. Our culture is underpinned by six core values which provide the building blocks for how we operate and get things done as a team. It is by embodying these values that we can deliver our purpose and meet our strategic objectives.

To ensure we live these values every day, we hold regular meetings, briefing sessions, town hall sessions, as well as “coffee chats” and surveys, to give our people the opportunity to share their views, listen to our progress and understand our shared direction.

Diversity and inclusion

At Gulf Keystone, we seek to create a strong culture in which the principles of diversity and inclusion are promoted across the business. As detailed in our Diversity and Equal Opportunities Policy, we treat all people fairly, equally and without prejudice irrespective of their gender, sex, age, race, disability, sexual orientation or any other attributes. We work hard to build an inclusive culture that creates a strong sense of belonging and purpose. We believe our individual differences and unique cultural perspectives add value to our expertise and enable us to find innovative solutions to solve challenges. As at 31 December 2023, our workforce was comprised of 20 different nationalities.

We also recognise we operate in an industry with low rates of female participation. As a result, we make a concerted effort to attract and retain female talent, improve the balance of our workforce and to create opportunities for the development and promotion of women into senior leadership roles. GKP’s Global Women’s Network, established in 2022, focuses on driving professional development and advocacy for women across the organisation. As at 31 December 2024, our workforce was comprised of 24 different nationalities.

Case study: Global Women’s Network

In a milestone step for gender diversity and inclusion at GKP, we established our Global Women’s Network (“GWN”) in 2022. The purpose of the GWN is to create additional growth opportunities for women within the business and to help us drive inclusivity and representation. The network is sponsored by our Chief Executive Officer and focuses on:

• delivering opportunities to enhance and upskill leadership skills;
• fostering an inclusive environment where women can support one another through a strong network;
• achieving a positive impact and contributing to GKP’s gender diversity and inclusion efforts; and
• demonstrating our core values of safety, social responsibility, trust through open communication, innovation and excellence, integrity and respect, and teamwork.

Generating economic value for Kurdistan

Since our entry into Kurdistan in 2007, we have created significant economic value for the region. To date, we have invested with our partners around $3 billion gross in the exploration, development and production of crude oil, $2 billion of which has been spent in the Shaikan Field and $1.1 billion across three other licences which have since been relinquished. GKP and other International Oil Companies (“IOCs”) have funded all at-risk capital to develop the region’s industry, which has been enabled by the mutually beneficial risk and reward structure of the Production Sharing Contract.

Over the past five years, 43% on average of our purchasing and contracting has been with local companies. We are also committed to the employment of local people, who in recent years have consistently accounted for between 74-86% of our total workforce.

Our investment, as well as the size of the Shaikan Field and its track record of profitable production growth, have made us a key participant in the rapid development of the Kurdistan oil industry. The Shaikan Field alone has generated over $1.5 billion of revenues for the Kurdistan Regional Government in the last five years.

Local community engagement

Our relationships with local communities are critical to our licence to operate. There are over 30 villages in the Shaikan area close to our operations; by listening and responding to their needs and by supporting valuable community initiatives, we have been able to make a lasting impact.

We work in close collaboration with our local communities to identify programmes that promote economic growth, social development and shared prosperity. Our community focus is split into three core areas. Firstly, we support regional agriculture – the second largest sector of Kurdistan’s economy after oil and gas. Secondly, we support local education and enterprise projects. And thirdly, we support Good Neighbour projects that provide vital community infrastructure, such as power and water, and protect public health and safety.

A summary of our 2024 and 2025 contributions is provided below.

Local farmer support (Agriculture)

We support local farmers with the tools and infrastructure they need to take care of their livestock. A vital initiative has been the provision of dip pools for sheep and goats, which enable farmers to eliminate external parasites. Pools constructed previously in 2019 and 2020 helped prevent outbreaks of haemorrhagic fever in 2023. In 2024, we funded and built an additional pool.

Over the last few years, we have also provided local farmers with thousands of olive trees to provide a productive method of sequestration for the area. As well as providing year-round greenery, the olives can be converted into olive oil via an extractor donated by GKP in 2021. In 2024, we donated an additional 2,000 olive trees to two villages. In 2025, we are planning to fund a new bottling machine for the olive oil extractor to improve productivity.

Livestock support (Agriculture)
We also support local farmers with the tools and infrastructure they need to take care of their livestock. A vital initiative has been the provision of dip pools for sheep and goats, which enable farmers to eliminate external parasites. Pools constructed previously in 2019 and 2020 helped prevent outbreaks of haemorrhagic fever in 2023. In 2024, we are planning to fund and build an additional pool.

Literacy, language and sewing courses (Education)

In 2024, we funded and organised Kurdish literacy and English language courses for several villages in the Shaikan Block. Over 100 local villagers attended the courses in aggregate and we are planning to run additional sessions in 2025.

We also organised advanced sewing courses in 2024, attracting over 60 attendees. Participants were provided with their own sewing machines and received teaching on digital marketing to enable them to sell their clothing. We have plans to extend the programme to 2025.

Road safety measures (Good Neighbour)

With the continuation of local sales via trucking in 2024, we funded additional safety measures across the Shaikan Block, including speed bumps, signs, road crossings and the employment of a traffic warden for a local school. We are targeting further initiatives in 2025.

Community infrastructure (Good Neighbour)

We have an extensive track record of supporting our local communities to fund and develop vital infrastructure via our Good Neighbour projects programme. Requests we receive from villages typically relate to the provision of new water pipes, tanks, wells and filtration systems as well as power lines and generators. 

Highlights from 2024 included:

• the drilling of a new 240-metre-deep water well for a local village to replace one that had previously dried up;
• provision of stand-alone water filtration systems to 40 households; and
• donation of 285 kerosene heaters to households in Duhok, a city around c.60 kilometres north-west of the Shaikan Field, following heavy flooding in March 2024.