Abstract
The oil and gas industries remain an important drive for the world economy. On one hand,
global demand for fossil fuels is still rising, and on the other hand, companies face complex investment
challenges due to the harsh operational environment of exploration and production activities.
Workforce regulations aim to provide a safe and secured working environment. However, exploration
and production activities still cause local and global environmental risks such as groundwater
contamination, or climate change in broader scale. Analyzing and reporting mechanisms are key
performance indicators of sustainable development at the level of oil and gas companies. Obtaining
and analyzing required data, nevertheless, seem to be a persistent challenge as to what degree these
findings can affect the routine and strategic decisions of the oil and gas companies. In order to enable
oil and gas companies to measure and control risks and manage incidents, artificial intelligent
technologies in extended monitoring and supervising E&P operations is known to be an efficient
prevention strategy. Such tools not only aid in profitability of the oil and gas companies, but also
increase awareness of environment and climate change to act more responsibly. In this study, the
significances of environmental policies were investigated through interviews with executives and
stakeholders, revealing that the implementation of environmental protection policies is affected by the
financial stability of the companies, and under severe economic situations, companies seem less
enthusiastic in strictly implementing those policies. This paper provides a comprehensive review of
emerging technologies in addressing existing and foreseen challenges in sustainable development in oil
and gas industries, with the aim of suggesting prime solutions for strategic planning attempts.
Keywords: sustainability, policies, challenges, innovation, smart solutions, oil and gas industry.