A Message from Our Board

Marathon Oil’s commitment to ESG excellence is supported by effective corporate governance. In addition to achieving significant progress against core safety and environmental objectives and announcing new and enhanced environmental targets in 2021, the board restructured Marathon Oil’s short-term incentive annual cash bonus scorecard to align with the performance areas we deem most critical, including ESG aspects. These performance areas are:

• Safety performance (TRIR)
• Environmental performance (GHG emissions intensity)
• Capital and operating efficiency (corporate free cash flow breakeven)
• Capital discipline/free cash flow generation (reinvestment rate)
• Financial/balance sheet strength (cash flow per debt adjusted share)

In addition, we eliminated production and growth metrics from the company’s annual bonus scorecard, as our focus is on the powerful combination of differentiated financial performance and non-financial excellence.

We maintain an independent and diverse board of directors with strong skills and experience. In 2021, we welcomed two new highly-skilled, independent directors, bringing the total number of new directors added since 2018 to five. Six of our seven directors are independent, and all board committees are made up of entirely independent directors. We’ve also made progress on balancing various aspects of board diversity, and three of our directors are women, including our lead director, and one director self-identifies as racially/ethnically diverse. For a full list of our board’s qualifications, including risk management expertise, please review our Board Skills and Experience Diversity Matrix.

Over the past year, the company remained focused on its mission and core values despite ongoing impacts created by the pandemic, including global labor and supply chain challenges that continue to affect nearly all sectors, including oil and gas. Marathon Oil’s financial and non-financial performance is a testament to the resilience and dedication of its employees.

As we look ahead toward a lower carbon intensity energy transition, oil and gas will remain a critical component of energy security, particularly as demand grows and geopolitical forces constrain global supply. Now more than ever, the oil and gas sector is essential to providing uninterrupted access to the responsible, affordable energy vital to the national and economic security of the United States and its allies. The continued responsible development of oil and gas is crucial to protecting the standard of living we have all come to enjoy and just as important, it’s central to elevating the current standard of living for billions of people around the world – many of whom are in developing countries, living in energy poverty.

In this year’s report, we’re pleased to share our progress, as well as the challenges and opportunities we face, in addressing these and other core ESG issues and to do so in a meaningful way. We remain committed to continuous improvement and ongoing transparency and will work with regulators to develop standards that are fair and equitable across industries.

Our focus moving forward will be providing low-cost and reliable energy that supports a strong economy and our quality of life, while we also innovate to address the risks of climate change. We look forward to the opportunities ahead and to updating you on our progress.