IDENTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT OF INNOVATIVE GREEN SUPPLY CHAIN PRACTICES IN THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY OF THE GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL (GCC) COUNTRIES

Countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have historically been reliant on the output and performance of their oil and gas companies to buoy their respective economies. However, there has been a considerable shift in the global disposition towards the traditional products of this industry. Many countries are adding regulations in view of the growing recognition of the environmental harms that the oil and gas industry accrue across its entire value chain—from discovery to refinement and delivery. To respond to this, firms in the industry are working towards limiting their environmental footprint by adopting sustainable practices. The broad approach towards aligning supply chains towards sustainability is in the development of what is called a green supply chain. In this work, the goal is to evaluate the current state of green supply chain implementation in the GCC by understanding the barriers and drivers that firms face as well as the extent of application in these companies. To facilitate the goals of research work, 400 employees from oil and gas companies across all countries in the GCC were surveyed to assess the supply chains of their own firms. The results indicate that barriers like access to technology are the primary impediment towards adoption of these practices by the organization. At the same time, it was also found that the impact of the drivers are far more pronounced and, among those considered, the role of external incentives from the public sector along with pressure coming from consumers were the main sources of motivation to transition. Furthermore, the respondents also noted that there has been considerable effort in the oil and gas industry to utilize green supply chain practices although some work can still be done to further expand adoption. Finally, the data also shows that the employees recognize the inherent value of green supply chain practices, indicating that overall supply chain performance is positively affected by their utilization.