PdVSA’s CEO, Ail Rodriguez Araque, received an Award in Social Responsibility, for its paper titled “Corporate social responsibility: A sustainable development experience in PdVSA”, which outlines its Social Investment policy as a key sustainable development leverage.

Seventy-eight projects were proposed for the WPC Excellence Awards, a prize launched this year for the 17th World Petroleum Congress. In the Social Responsibility category, honourable mention was awarded to PdVSA, with the project Hydrologic Basin Social Investments Project (HBSIP). The winner in the category for Technological Development was Statoil from Norway with the project Underground CO2-Storage. In the area of Social Responsibility, the winning company was Schlumberger, with the project Schlumberger Programme of Excellence in Educational Development.

“PdVSA acknowledges that its performance as an oil corporation cannot be limited to paying taxes, dividends, and royalties to the Venezuelan state, its shareholder, and this is why, through our social investment management approach, we aim to support the communities, so these organize themselves and become the protagonists of their own progress and well-being,” stated Rodriguez.

For PdVSA, operating in a socially responsible manner means to perform under a mutual commitment approach with its different related audiences, but primarily as a Sustainable Development catalyst agent, primarily applied to Social Investment, by focusing efforts in Education, Health, Environment, and Local Economy.

The paper illustrates, through its co-management program for the conservation of hydrologic basins, the application of a new methodology developed by Palmaven, a subsidiary of PdVSA, called LASD (Levels of Approximation to Sustainable Development).

The purpose of LASD is to gauge the company’s Social Investment impact on long-term community development in synergy with official agencies and other community and non-governmental organizations, through the integral recovery and conservation of high-value water-producing basins.

The paper addresses a key issue for humanity as is scarcity of water for human consumption and the possibility of recovering the water source ecosystems. The paper was prepared by a cross-disciplinary team made up by: Oralyn Caldera, Felipe Baritto, Carlos Flores, and Ramón Morales Gil, employees of the corporation.

Other companies highly commended for their contribution’s papers on Technological Development, were Phillips Petroleum, with “Phillips Zorbsulphur removal technology for gasoline & diesel”, and Technip-Coflexip, with the project “Deepwater flexible risers &flowlines for FPSO-based field developments”. and in the Social Responsibility category, Tecpetrol, who submitted the paper “Tecpetrol — Ten years of community service.”

The winners were selected on the criteria of technological and social responsibility, such as: Technological breakthroughs; cost effectiveness; commitment and involvement of management and employees; wide applicability; and reproducibility for the petroleum industry. The winners were selected by an international committee consisting of representatives from highly qualified organizations such as: Society of Petroleum Engineers, World Wildlife Foundation and united Nations Environmental Organizations.