CEO Message

At Marathon Oil, we recognize that financial, operational and environmental, social and governance (ESG) excellence are foundational to our framework for success. 2021 was an outstanding year at Marathon Oil and I am particularly proud of our ESG progress. This includes strong safety and environmental performance; accelerating our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts; investing in our talented workforce; and contributing to our communities while providing responsible, affordable and reliable energy.

While we continue to feel the impacts of the pandemic on our supply chain and are closely watching labor shortages, Marathon Oil is meeting the demand of our customers and achieving our business objectives. This includes delivering financial sustainability that is competitive not only with our direct E&P peers but with the broader market, all while driving significant reductions to both the greenhouse gas (GHG) and methane intensity of our operations, consistent with the trajectory of the Paris Climate Agreement.

I am pleased to announce that in 2021 Marathon Oil delivered another strong year of safety performance, as measured by a 0.29 Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR). This was our second lowest TRIR since becoming an independent exploration and production company and was achieved while we were still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This demonstrates our steadfast commitment to safety as a core value and reflects the maturity of our safety culture, the rigor of our management systems and the engagement of our leadership throughout the organization. Nevertheless, we know there are always opportunities for continued improvement, particularly as we leverage more short-service staff in 2022. As we do, safety will continue to be a top priority.

During 2021, Marathon Oil realized significant progress against our core environmental objectives, achieving our GHG intensity reduction target of at least 30% and improving total company gas capture to 98.8%. In addition, the powerful combination of our quantitative GHG intensity reduction initiatives and disciplined capital allocation model that prioritizes free cash flow generation has contributed to a significant decline in the company’s absolute GHG emissions.

To underscore our commitment to meeting the world’s energy needs with leading environmental performance, we have announced a comprehensive set of new quantitative objectives intended to drive further improvement to our GHG intensity, methane intensity and natural gas capture for the near-, medium- and long-term time horizon. These goals complement our existing 2025 GHG intensity objective and are intended to promote external transparency and accountability while also enhancing the internal alignment and employee innovation necessary to deliver such strong performance.

As a leader in the E&P sector, we know that reflecting, valuing and leveraging diversity is essential to attracting, developing and retaining people who bring us the best ideas and the most innovative solutions. In 2021, we increased global gender and U.S. racial/ethnic representation to 29% and 30% respectively, compared to 26% and 27%, respectively since 2017. We also are committed to transparency and are making our Equal Opportunity and Employment (EEO-1) data public.

Employee-led resource groups (ERGs) are helping to support diversity efforts within our workplace. In 2021, our Black Employees and Allies of Marathon (BEAM) network celebrated its one-year anniversary, while our Women’s Network continued to grow. We have also launched two new ERGs representing the Hispanic/Latin and the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. And in Equatorial Guinea, we continue to increase the percentage of national citizens in our workforce.

We’re proud of our continued strategic investments to build healthier, stronger and safer communities through initiatives including the Bioko Island Malaria Elimination Program in Equatorial Guinea, and My Home Library program and newly launched Unconventional Thinking in Teaching grant program in our U.S. assets, all discussed in more detail in this report. We also are committed to respecting human rights and recently released a Human Rights Policy.

We believe Marathon Oil, as a global oil and gas producer, has a clear and much-needed role to play in the orderly, multi-decade transition to a lower carbon future. This belief has only been reinforced as energy markets have struggled to respond to a confluence of factors: continued demand recovery from the pandemic, struggling global supply chains, U.S. labor shortages and systemic under-investment in both new oil and gas supply and the supporting infrastructure.

We’re focused on a pragmatic, free-market, innovative and “all of the above” approach to both meet growing world energy demand and mitigate global GHG emissions.

Throughout this report, I’m confident you’ll see the efforts of our employees and contractors who strive every day to operate responsibly, work together as ‘One Team,’ support the communities where we live and work and maintain the values we believe in.

Through their efforts in 2021, we’ve increased our pace to meet our environmental goals and positioned our company to deliver long-term value for our shareholders, communities, partners and the environment. Our strategic focus on resilience, optimization and innovation underpins our ability to meet the challenges posed by climate change head-on while also helping to meet growing world energy demand.

I am proud of the progress we have made thus far and even more excited about how we’re positioned for the road ahead. At Marathon Oil, we have conviction that we’re pursuing the right strategy for shareholders and stakeholders alike.

Finally, I would like to thank our investors for their confidence in our company and our board of directors and entire Marathon Oil team for their dedication to powering a sustainable future for people and the planet.