Ophir Energy is an international oil and gas exploration and production company. Its production operations are based in Southeast Asia and Ophir has spent many years building strong relationships with local stakeholders.

On signing a new oil and gas licence, we work closely with the community in the area of operations with a twin goal. Firstly, to build awareness of why we are in the area, what we will be doing and over what time frame. Secondly, to understand areas where we can work with the local community to deliver long term sustainable benefits as a result of our presence.

The video we have collaborated on as part of the Reuters – UN Sustainable Goals series focuses on the Central Kalimantan area of Indonesia. This is an extremely remote, forested part of Indonesia with very few means of road transport and the main method of transport being river based. The villages we visited are yet to connect to the power grid and therefore had very basic facilities.

Ophir has worked extensively with the local community since we entered the region in 2010. A number of our smaller projects have focused on basic essentials. These included drilling water wells to provide a clean source of drinking water, teaching locals basic healthcare and midwifery skills and educating villagers on how to farm the land more efficiently to increase crop yields which provided both a reliable source of food and a surplus that could be sold to other villages generating income.

We brought the Kerendan gas field on-stream in 2016. This field supplied gas to a power plant 3km from the field and has resulted in the first reliable source of power for many of the local towns and villages. With reliable power, development has followed and this video looks at some of the benefits this has brought to the local community. We always try and act as a responsible partner and we are delighted that Ophir’s success in this region has brought meaningful, sustainable improvements to the lives of our local stakeholders. Development follows energy.