Human rights

The Human Rights policy commits Pharos to conducting its business in accordance with the fundamental principles of human rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reflects the terms of both the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Together with our Security Policy, it sets out our commitments to align with the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. We respect indigenous rights and cultures of the communities where we operate.

Our human rights due diligence includes processes to address, monitor and communicate actual or potential impacts. For Egypt, all our corporate policies including the Policy on Human Rights have been translated into Arabic for dissemination locally. In accordance with the UK Modern Slavery Act, Pharos reports annually on the steps it has taken to mitigate the risk of modern slavery occurring in any part of its business. 

Download our 2021 Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement

Community and social investment

Pharos remains committed to creating value for host countries and local communities as well as for staff and shareholders. We understand that our success is reliant upon building strong relationships and being welcomed as a responsible partner in our host countries and communities. In recent years, we have structured our social investment programme to align more with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

In Vietnam, we worked closely with the JOCs in order to make sure that our social initiatives in the region continue to have positive impacts on the region. In addition to the training levy of $300,000 per year in a ring-fenced fund to support developing future Vietnamese expertise in the industry, a further c.$200,000 was invested in 9 community projects. The JOCs actively inquired and listened to locals to identify which areas of the country would need the greatest assistance in order to ensure that we were investing in local projects that would bring the most sustainable positive impact to the community. 

In Egypt, under the El Fayum and North Beni Suef Concession Agreements, the Company contributes a total of $200,000 split equally between the two Concessions to support long-term training and development of talents within the industry (UN SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure). Additionally, in cooperation with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Petrosilah holds an annual summer training programme for all students applying from public and private Egyptian universities for training in the administrative office and the company’s fields, of which they can obtain a training certificate from the company (UN SDG 4: Quality education).

Social projects like these have been part of Pharos since inception, and we have always sought to invest sustainably so that the initiatives that we helped set up, stay in place, and have lasting impacts for many generations

Local content

We support local capacity building during the exploration or development phases of a project to ensure a positive imprint and legacy. All our licence agreements include a high degree of local content, which commits us to hire locally where possible and provide training to develop new skills. Our policy commits us to provide meaningful opportunities for technical cooperation, training and capacity building within any host country in which we operate.