We have a long tradition of investing in the communities in
which we operate. During 2006, we donated an estimated
$50.6 million to charitable programs in the areas of education
and youth, health and social services, environment, civic
programs and the arts and assisting with emergency events.
Of that total, 14 percent was given outside the United States.
Education and Youth
Contributing to quality education in our areas of operation
helps to build vibrant, self-sustaining communities and
represents an investment in developing local talent to join our
industry. A key contribution to education in the United States
is ConocoPhillips’ SPIRIT Scholars program, which is
described further on page 60.
One institution where we have a long history of student
support is the University of Oklahoma’s School of Geology
and Geophysics – which was the first in the United States to
offer a petroleum geology degree. In 2007, we pledged
$6 million to the school, the largest corporate gift in its history.
More than half of the gift will provide graduate fellowships
and undergraduate scholarships; the remainder will endow a
visiting faculty position and be used to modernize classrooms,
laboratories and equipment.
We also fund programs which encourage careers in engineering
and technology. We are a long-time supporter of National
Engineers Week, which increases awareness and appreciation
of the profession through activities directed at middle-school
students. Other U.S. programs, such as Mathcounts, encourage
interest and proficiency in mathematics and related careers.
Teachers’ skills are enhanced through programs like the
ConocoPhillips Summer Science Institute, which exposes
teachers to imaginative and challenging possibilities in the
study of mathematics and science.
Internationally, our higher-education contributions are directed
to recruiting top talent in such critical skill areas as engineering
and project management; supporting corporate strategy in
growth regions, such as Russia and the Asia-Pacific region;
and strengthening community relations in countries in need of
education infrastructure. For example, in Arkhangelsk, Russia,
we awarded scholarships to 12 students and six professors at
Pomorsk State University for the 2006-2007 semesters. The
grants not only increase access to education, but also invest in
the continued growth of the educators themselves. We have
launched similar scholarship programs at Moscow State University
and Gubkin State Oil and Gas University in Moscow.
Special Needs Schools
ConocoPhillips supports Special Olympics at many of our locations
around the world, including Russia pictured here. |
In addition to investing in universities and educational programs
globally, many of our community investments focus on
special-needs schools in disadvantaged areas. For example,
in 2006, we donated more than $7,000-worth of teaching
equipment to Yuanping Special School in Shenzhen, southern
China, the only facility in the city for students with disabilities.
We also are one of several companies that donate to the
Ky Quang Orphanage for the blind in Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam, where young adults are taught self-sufficiency.
In northern Russia, our Polar Lights joint venture has
sponsored several local organizations through a project called
Children of Arkhangelsk. One project uses speech-visualization
software to teach deaf children to speak; another gives orphaned
children basic self-reliance skills. Polar Lights also purchased
a horse for the Arkhangelsk Rehabilitation Center for Disabled
Children, where riding on horseback helps stimulate neurological
function and sensory processing for children with infantile
cerebral paralysis.
In Lagos, Nigeria, we funded the construction and furnishing
of an eight-classroom block for pupils of Wesley School for
the Hearing Impaired. The school, established in 1962 with
a student population of 30, now has more than 600 pupils
in the same facilities. ConocoPhillips has assisted the
government by improving water and sanitation services for
the school. We are committed to maintaining and sustaining
these improvements, and periodically meet with the school’s
staff and other stakeholders to ensure that the facilities
provided are running efficiently.
Youth Programs
Programs such as U.S.A. Swimming, Junior Achievement,
Boys and Girls Clubs and the Special Olympics demonstrate
our commitment to youth. Many of these programs are
supported in regions across the globe. For example, some of
the locations where we support the Special Olympics include
Houston, Texas, where we sponsor the Athlete Village; Colorado,
supported for more than 20 years by our U.S. Marketing Group
with cumulative donations exceeding $250,000 and many
thousands of employee volunteer hours; and Russia, where we
have donated an estimated $60,000 over the past six years. In
2006, the Russia program included students who have received
scholarships from the company serving as volunteers for
Special Olympics events.
Health and Social Services
Construction of water pumps in rural Timor-Leste gives these
communities easier access to clean water. |
About half of our donations to social service organizations is
channeled through the United Way to strengthen communities
both in the United States and worldwide. The rest is contributed
directly to the Red Cross, community centers, the Salvation
Army and other service organizations such as the Shunyi
Orphanage outside Beijing, which houses approximately
30 children, many of whom are handicapped.
Many of our businesses hold regular events to share their health
and safety knowledge with the public. At the Sweeny refinery
in Texas, for example, we organize an annual Health and Safety
Fair offering free health checks and medical services to the local
community. More than 500 people attended the 2006 event.
In many instances, our employees have developed programs to
educate local communities on safety, such as the Fire Safety
House, which has taught more than a million schoolchildren
across the United States how to protect themselves and their
families from fire. In the United Kingdom, our JET fuel brand
has focused on road safety for children with a number of innovative
national campaigns. We also address safety concerns through
organizations such as the Progressive Agriculture Foundation,
which conducts camps to teach safety to thousands of children
growing up on farms and ranches across North America.
In developing countries, our efforts are directed toward such
fundamental needs as clean water and good hygiene. In Southeast
Asia, we partnered with WorldVision to construct two
hydraulic water pumps in rural communities near Dili, Timor-
Leste. Community members, women and children in particular,
had traditionally fetched water by laboriously climbing steep
slopes up to four times a day over relatively long distances.
The two water pumps will assist 1,650 people in the villages of
Ferik-Katuas and Laulara by improving hygiene and supporting
local agriculture, which in turn improves nutrition. Using very
few moving parts, the pumps utilize the momentum from flowing
streams in the valleys. The labor for the project is carried out
primarily by the villagers themselves.
In Venezuela, we helped the people of Pedernales and Capure
create a civic association to provide a clean water treatment
and distribution system for their communities, replacing their
reliance on rain for drinking water. On Matak Island, Indonesia,
we found a lack of knowledge among the local community
about public health issues, with garbage disposed on the beach
and in the sea. We worked with community leaders to promote
health awareness and create systems to help the community
manage its waste properly.
Civic Programs and the Arts
We participate in a variety of projects that support the arts and
celebrate cultural history and diversity.
Since 1999, we have worked with the Norwegian Academy
of Music in Oslo to present an annual music award, which allows
students to further their professional development and
specialization. In Bartlesville, Oklahoma, we support OkMozart,
a music festival showcasing world renown musicians.
In support of Alaska’s traditional whaling culture, we provided
funding for the International Whaling Conference and the
activities of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, as well
as the Kivgiq festival, a traditional Inupiat celebration held by
the outlying villages of the North Slope to celebrate a successful
whaling season. Other cultural projects supported include
housing for native elders, funding for sinew sewers who repair
skin whaling boats, dancing and drumming performances and
the traditional Kivgiq and Nalukataq gatherings.
We also support many museums, foundations and exhibits
worldwide, including the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in
Moscow; the Museum of Natural Science and the Children’s
Museum of Houston, Texas; the Farmington Museum in New
Mexico; and the National Oil Museum in Stavanger, Norway.
Environment
Some of our key objectives in investing in environmental programs
is enhancing wildlife habitat and environmental education.
In the United States, we are a longtime participant in the Playa
Lakes Joint Venture, a partnership of federal and state natural
resource agencies and conservation groups dedicated to protecting
wetlands and prairies in the western Great Plains. The company
has contributed more than $1.3 million over 15 years to support
hundreds of habitat conservation, research and education projects.
At the Humber refinery in the United Kingdom, we are creating
a 120-acre woodland called Mayflower Wood
(
http://www.mayflowerwood.co.uk), the largest
project of its kind in the country. Since 2005, more than 67,000
trees and shrubs from a variety of native species have been
planted. Employees worked with a community partnership to
develop the project, which includes family picnic areas, nature
trails, educational boards and a looped walkway connecting local
villages. The wood is adjacent to the 15-acre Houlton’s Covert
deer park and nature reserve, which we developed for school and
community visits and which is run by refinery volunteers.
In China, we are the sole sponsor of the International
Friendship Forest, a national park at the Badaling gate of the
Great Wall, one of the country’s most popular tourist sites.
The park’s objective is to create a natural environment which
complements the wall’s historical heritage, cultural essence
and ecological environment. ConocoPhillips has funded
restoration and development of the park since 2000, and our
employees help with tree planting and maintenance.
Also in China since 1998, ConocoPhillips has donated more
than $715,000, in partnership with the State Environmental
Protection Bureau and Municipal Environmental Protection
Bureau, to promote the Search for Solutions initiatives with
the goal of helping Chinese elementary- and secondary-school
students become better environmental citizens. The program
provides students with specific educational information on the
environmental conditions that affect their lives, hands-on
experience through field studies and experiments and
workshops to creatively express their concern for the
environment or their own environmental solutions.
Employee Volunteerism
The benefit of ConocoPhillips’ charitable giving is often accompanied
and leveraged by the voluntary efforts of our employees, who
give thousands of hours of their personal time to worthy causes.
The company supports their efforts and involvement in
community projects through the Employee Volunteer Grant
Program. U.S. employees can apply for grants of up to $3,000
for capital improvements and up to $500 for planning projects
for charitable organizations in which they volunteer their time.
In 2006, $371,000 was awarded to charitable organizations via
301 employee volunteer grants.
In 2006, the Employee Volunteer Grant Program was introduced
in China, where volunteer activities include tree planting,
orphanage visits and interactive teaching in elementary schools.
The company’s Matching Gift Plan is available to employees who
wish to support their communities by making contributions to
accredited educational institutions. Eligible contributions from
employees are matched dollar-for-dollar to an annual maximum
of $10,000. Eligible retiree contributions are matched at
50 cents to the dollar to an annual maximum of $5,000. In
2006, the company matched a total of $2.2 million of program
participants’ contributions.
In Canada, voluntary activities included a program to provide
school backpacks to children in Louisiana impacted by
Hurricane Katrina; help with teaching reading at Connaught
Community School in Calgary; and participation in the
national Commuter Challenge, an event which encourages
people to commute to work on foot, via bicycle, public
transport or carpools, rather than driving alone. In 2006, nearly
600 employees and contractors cycled a total of 50,000 miles
for the challenge, farther than any other corporation in Canada.
In Beijing, China, the company matched money raised by
employees for the Light and Love School, for children of the
city’s migrant workers, to bring the total donation to more
than $12,500.
Since the company’s return to Libya in 2006, employees
have been helping the community, lending a hand to renovate
elementary school washrooms that had been out of service
for five years. Employees also delivered and installed
refrigerators, stoves and water heaters to 30 needy families.
In Texas, Houston employees help Habitat for Humanity build
homes for the needy; while at the Sweeny refinery, the work
force holds an annual barbecue and auction to raise money for
colleagues in need of financial assistance for medical or other
reasons. In 2006, the event raised $77,600 and benefited 106
people; and in 2007, the event raised $80,000, with awards to
beneficiaries determined throughout the year.
In Ponca City, Oklahoma, an Employee Environmental Action
Committee initiates and supports activities that promote
environmental awareness and responsibility. Funding is
provided to help volunteers work in partnership with schools
on environmental grants, the city of Ponca City on household
hazardous waste collection, the state on an adopt-a-highway
program (cleaning up designated areas of roadside trash), and
other environmental activities initiated by ConocoPhillips
employees and/or retirees to benefit the community.
Disaster Relief
Employees in Indonesia began collecting donations immediately
after the devastating earthquake in Java in May 2006, in
addition to a contribution made by the company to the Red
Cross for $100,000.Within a week, two representatives
traveled to Yogyakarta, the epicenter of the earthquake, to
distribute clothes, food, toiletries, blankets and medicine. The
company-matched employee donations and subsequently
supported local agencies working to reconstruct Yogyakarta. In
addition, we have pledged $1 million to United States Agency
for International Development (USAID) for rebuilding and
rehabilitating schools in the region.
Alliance refinery volunteers helped homeowners affected by Katrina
in the Rebuilding Together Energy-Efficient Homes program. |
In 2004, we contributed more than $2.8 million to assist those
affected by the tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Employees,
retirees and contractors donated more than $800,000, while the
company gave $1 million in matching contributions, plus an
additional $1 million pledged the week after the disaster
occurred. Our aid included working with USAID to rebuild
five villages in Aceh on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra.
Following Typhoon Billis in July 2006, local employees initiated
a fund-raising effort among oil companies in the region to
make donations for flood relief in Guangdong province on the
south coast of China, one of the areas most severely damaged.
Hurricane Response
ConocoPhillips has provided $10 million, with another $6 million
pledged, in hurricane-related contributions to rebuild and
support communities on the U.S. Gulf Coast that were devastated
by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
These donations included over $11 million for projects in
communities close to our Alliance and Lake Charles refineries
in Louisiana, including $5 million to build a new community
center in Plaquemines Parish, $1 million for new science
laboratories at Belle Chasse High School, $2 million for a new
industrial technology building at the Sowela Technical Community
College in Lake Charles and $3 million for other relief work in
Louisiana. Our donations also include $1 million to the Alabama
Governor’s Emergency Relief Fund, $1 million to the Mississippi
Hurricane Recovery Fund, just over $2 million to Texas relief
efforts and $1 million to the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s
Libraries Gulf Coast School Library Recovery Initiative.
Hurricane Katrina severely damaged the 247,000 barrelper-
day Alliance refinery in Belle Chase in August that year.
The following month Hurricane Rita struck the 239,000 barrelper-
day Lake Charles refinery and our 229,000 barrel-per-day
Sweeny refinery in Texas. Lake Charles suffered wind damage
and was shut down for a month; however, the Sweeny facility
was undamaged and restarted immediately.
Recovery workers at Alliance had to repair damage caused by
eight-foot-deep storm waters and extensive wind damage. The
refinery’s central control system, instrumentation and electrical
infrastructure were badly damaged. Employees and contractors
logged more than 2.5 million work hours over a period of
235 days to restore normal operations in April 2006.
Refined products supply, including gasoline and diesel fuel,
was significantly impacted by the industry’s refinery shutdowns
along the coast. Oil and gas production was also shut-in
at offshore fields in the Gulf of Mexico and even at onshore
fields in Louisiana and Texas.
We worked to maximize the capabilities of our U.S. refining
and transportation system and also imported refined products
to supply customers. A week after Hurricane Rita, we were
able to reopen our Houston-area terminal in Pasadena, Texas,
to provide fuel to retail sites in the greater Houston area.
Overall, 1,100 employees along the Gulf Coast were
affected by the hurricanes. At Alliance, every employee’s
home suffered wind or water damage – more than 80 properties
were uninhabitable and many were completely destroyed. The
company made an immediate $5,000 payment and offered
interest-free loans to those whose homes were damaged.
Despite their personal difficulties, many employees worked
long hours to re-establish refinery operations.
Others opened their homes to those displaced by the
hurricanes or donated money, food and clothing to help their
neighbors and co-workers in the days that followed. A fund
established by employees to help co-workers raised more
han $105,000, which was distributed in 74 grants to victims
of the disaster.
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 The Attwater’s prairie chicken has increased in numbers due to
habitat restoration and protection and captive breeding. |
We launched the SPIRIT of Conservation program in
2005 to protect threatened migratory birds and their
habitats worldwide, especially in regions where we have
operations. The program builds on our 15-year partnership
with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which has
funded more than 50 projects with a total value in excess
of $6 million. Conservation initiatives have included
establishing a breeding program for the endangered
Attwater’s prairie chicken, replanting migratory bird
habitat in Louisiana and along the hurricane-damaged Gulf
Coast, restoring wetlands in New Jersey and Delaware
Bay and rejuvenating prairie nesting grounds in Texas.
A feature of the program is bird conservation projects in
countries where we have a presence. In Siberia and China,
for example, we are helping the International Crane
Foundation undertake a three-year effort to save endangered
Siberian and red-crowned cranes. The project includes
tracking Siberian crane migration by satellite to identify
and conserve their wetland habitats. Organizations may
apply for SPIRIT of Conservation grants online (
http://www.nfwf.org).
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Dr. David Manalo won the St. Andrews Prize in 2007.
Coconut husk farmers can trade their fiber for sustainable lighting. |
We sponsor the St. Andrews Prize for the Environment (
http://www.thestandrewsprize.com),
an annual competition conducted in conjunction with the
University of St. Andrews, Scotland, which encourages
development of practical, original and sustainable solutions
to environmental challenges worldwide. Since its
launch in 1998, it has attracted entries from throughout
the world on diverse topics including sustainable development
in the Amazon rainforest, urban regeneration,
recycling, health and water issues and renewable energy.
Submissions for the prize are assessed by a panel of
eminent trustees representing science, industry and
government, with the $50,000 first prize going to the
project displaying the best combination of good science,
economic realism and political acceptability.
The 2007 winner was an innovative project to provide
sustainable lighting and a new source of income for poor
coconut farmers in remote, mountainous areas of the
Philippines. The project generates clean electricity from
water power to recharge batteries and light the homes of
farmers who trade coconut husk fibers for the service.
The fibers are sold for use in environmental projects such
as erosion control and the protection of tree saplings, and
income from the fiber sales is reinvested in the project.
Two runners-up in the 2007 awards, which each received
$10,000, were a project which uses solar energy and
seawater to cultivate crops in hot, dry coastal regions,
and a project which uses satellite images to support
conservation initiatives in developing countries.
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