Oil & Gas

Under the Carbon Emissions Spotlight:
Unlocking Financing with  Audit-Ready Sustainability Data

Companies with high carbon emissions face intense scrutiny and pressure from all sides: climate activists want lower emissions; regulators want detailed reporting; and investors want complete, accurate and audited carbon emissions data. Under the spotlight, carbon-intense companies must have accurate sustainability data prepared in a reliable manner.

Our Impact

5X gain from streamlining back office operations
4800+ data sources across 450+ locations —
unified into one data file
A complete year of audit-ready data in just 7 weeks

The Company

An oil and gas company came to GLYNT.AI because it faced an unpleasant choice. It needed accurate, auditable data, but only knew of two solutions: expensive consultants (who often typed in the data) or an in-house team. The company was looking for a better way: automated, finance-grade sustainability data.

With over 440 locations worldwide and a vast network of over 4,800 energy, water and natural gas vendors, the significant data challenge reflects the company’s complex and expansive operational footprint.

As with companies in the oil and gas sector, it placed a high priority on security, privacy, and compliance.

The Challenge

The costumer was planning a major infrastructure improvement project and wanted to obtain bond financing. However, investors and investment bankers required audited emissions data before they would proceed. As climate risk becomes increasingly part of corporate valuations, investors are increasingly wary of the financial risks of carbon-intense companies.

Unfortunately, the oil & gas company’s carbon emissions data was several years old and assembled by hand. It was riddled with errors and missing fields. This spotty data was a problem for investors, and financing was on hold until fresh, accurate, audited sustainability data could be provided.

As the company set out to find a solution, there were several requirements that it hoped an automated and streamlined sustainability data service could address:

A Single Solution: The costumer wanted a single system to process all of its data. Splitting the data streams up and parsing out to various vendors could lead to more errors.
A Full Audit Trail: The output files reviewed by the auditors must track back to the compliant with financial reporting and auditability standards.
Validation and Verification: There must be a method to verify that the data was complete and accurate without duplicates or gaps.
Speed: Most importantly, it needed a solution fast.   Financing was on the line — there was no time to waste.

The Solution

The oil and gas company approached GLYNT.AI with its project requirements  and timeline. The GLYNT.AI data services fit their needs.

Setup & Preparation

The company transferred an initial set of files to GLYNT.AI for preparation. In this initial setup, data from 20 sites was used as a fast-path test. We created a customized field list and revised it to meet the customer’s reporting needs.

Testing

Once the initial path was created, we processed hundreds of vendors through the new system and completed a second review of the customized field list. With this review, we adjusted some outputs and enabled the change across all data.

An Unexpected Challenge

During this initial phase, GLYNT.AI encountered an unexpected challenge: A significant number of duplicate files. Metrics from GLYNT.AI’s system showed these were coming from several sources:

Duplicate copies of an invoice were entered into the custumer’s ERP system because the invoice was categorized in several ways
The same invoice was posted in two different ERP systems
The vendor issued multiple copies of the invoice, and each was posted in the ERP system
The method to query and pull invoices from the ERP system used multiple overlapping queries to ensure that all files were pulled

Using it’s automated tools, including a mathematical fingerprint of every incoming data file, GLYNT.AI was able to eliminate duplicates and to shine a spotlight on these issues in their ERP system.

The Results

The customer had a full year’s worth of audit-ready data to present to investors in under 60 days.

The data files passed an internal audit and were then  opened to external auditors, and also passed with  flying colors. Importantly, the customer secured funding for their infrastructure improvements.

Packaging the Data

The customer also needed a defensible record for auditors. GLYNT.AI worked with the team to add unique identifiers from their ERP system to the GLYNT.AI data, enabling a seamless flow between sustainability reporting and financial reporting.

By the Numbers

5X gain from streamlining back office operations
4800+ data sources across 450+ locations —
unified into one data file
A complete year of audit-ready data in just 7 weeks

The customer has nearly eliminated the manual work done by the team. Instead of spending hours manually reviewing and correcting expensive mistakes, the teams are now using the data to identify back office and other operational efficiencies.

“We needed accurate, audit-ready sustainability data. GLYNT.AI delivered and helped us gain a 5x return through improved back office efficiency.”

– SAP Operations Specialist, Oil and Gas Company

The Future

The success of this project has laid a strong foundation transforming sustainability data preparation into an everyday routine activity that enables consistent finance-grade reporting of emissions data. The customer continues to rely on GLYNT.AI’s sustainability data services with plans to expand its use into other countries. GLYNT.AI’s data services not only helped the customer secure funding; it delivered operational efficiencies, cost savings and laid the foundation for a data-driven future.