According to Chevron’s Craig May, society has challenged the oil and gas industry to show that it can meet the world’s growing energy needs in a safer and more environmentally sustainable way.

His keynote address at the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers’ (IOGP) panel session at Offshore Technology Conference identified the way to meet this challenge: collaboration.

“By effectively and efficiently working together, we can advance an industry that safely and reliably meets the energy needs of our communities for generations to come,” said May, who is managing director of Chevron Upstream Europe (CUE). He also serves on IOGP’s Management Committee.

He singled out IOGP’s safety performance database to show how collaboration can benefit industry. For 30 years, IOGP members have shared the lessons learned and root causes of major incidents, leading to the development of good practices and guidelines. The database has enabled trend analysis and benchmarking and has helped the industry identify areas for improvement.

The 45 industry fatalities in 2014 was a number that “was still way too high,” May said. He urged industry to work together to develop good practices that will help reduce the level of fatalities.

He concluded with a call for industry to do a better job in sharing and encouraging good practice in environmental stewardship. As an example, he told attendees how Chevron is providing Californian almond farmers with wastewater to help alleviate the effects of the current drought.