Sector Standard for Oil and Gas
A Standard for the low-carbon transition
The importance of this Standard
GRI 11: Oil and Gas Sector 2021 addresses the pressing need for consistent and complete reporting on the complexity of transparency demands facing the sector. Not only does it facilitate the disclosures related to the impacts of the sector's present-day operations, but also how oil and gas organizations are changing their ways of working in support of the future transition to a low-carbon economy.
Signposting the way for oil and gas companies to address their shared impacts on the economy, the environment and people, this Sector Standard supports any oil and gas organization – irrespective of location, specialism or size – to effectively disclose its most significant impacts, providing the information that stakeholders require to assess a company’s sustainability opportunities and risks.
In effect for reporting from 1 January 2023, the GRI Oil and Gas Sector Standard 2021 is freely available for download now. We encourage its early adoption. This Standard is intended to be used with the revised GRI Universal Standards 2021 and the GRI Topic Standards.
Alignment with GRI Biodiversity, Climate Change and Energy Standards
When existing GRI Topic Standards are revised, or new ones developed, Sector Standards need to be assessed against the new or revised disclosures and aligned accordingly. See here for more information on the project.
Following the release of the GRI 101: Biodiversity 2024, GRI 102: Climate Change 2025 and GRI 103: Energy 2025 Topic Standards, GRI 11 is undergoing an alignment process to ensure that the Sector Standard is in line with best practice expectations for reporting on biodiversity, climate and energy.
The exposure draft containing the aligned topics is now open for public comment. We invite your feedback on the relevance and applicability of the proposed disclosures by 13 July 2025. You can access the exposure draft here.
Please use this questionnaire to leave you feedback or send it directly to [email protected].
For more information about the alignment, consult this FAQ document.
Basis for conclusions
The public comment period for the exposure draft of the Standard ran from 8 July to 6 October 2020.
The Basis for conclusions for the GRI Oil and Gas Sector Standard 2021 provides a summary of the significant issues raised through public comments. A complete record of the received comments can be found here. It also provides a summary of how the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) responded to these comments based on the Working Group's discussions and recommendations.
About this project
The development of this standard was prioritized based on the sector’s widely documented impacts across economic, environmental, and social dimensions. An expert multi-stakeholder Working Group was appointed by the GSSB.
Though the project originally intended to create a Standard applicable to oil, gas, and coal, during the course of the project, the GSSB decided to split its scope and develop separate standards instead – one for oil and gas, and one for coal. The development of these standards follows different timelines. For more information, please consult the meeting paper .
The project follows the GSSB’s Due Process Protocol, the implementation of which will be overseen by the Due Process Oversight Committee. The Standard for coal was launched in 2022. Learn more and download GRI 12: Coal Sector 2022 on the project webpage.
Watch this short explainer video on GRI 11: Oil & Gas.
For key documents, FAQs, resources and more, see the list at the bottom of this page.
Related documents
| GRI 11: Oil & Gas Sector Standard FAQ | file | 04 Oct 2021 | English | 153 KB | |
| A Short Introduction to the GRI Standards | file | 04 Oct 2021 | English | 369 KB | |
| GRI Sector Program Description | file | 07 Feb 2019 | English | 449 KB | |
| Terms of Reference: GRI Project Working Group for the Oil, Gas, and Coal Sector | file | 27 Mar 2019 | English | 266 KB | |
| Oil, Gas and Coal Sector Standard Project Proposal | file | 26 Mar 2019 | English | 322 KB | |
| GSSB Terms of Reference | file | 18 Oct 2018 | English | 108 KB | |
| GSSB Due Process Protocol 2018 | file | 18 Oct 2018 | English | 213 KB | |
| GSSB Work Program 2020-2022 | file | 01 Dec 2020 | English | 221 KB | |
| Basis for Conclusions for GRI 11: Oil and Gas Sector 2021 | file | 04 Oct 2021 | English | 365 KB |
Never miss an update
Subscribe to receive updates on our Standards projects. Also, keep an eye on this project page for information and events on this Standard.
Sign up