Equinor : 2023 Human rights statement

2023 Human Rights Statement

Content

Message from the CEO	3
Introduction	4
Overview of Equinor presence worldwide	5
Part I: Our approach	6
1. Our commitment to respecting human rights	6
2. Embedding human rights into the way we work	7
3. Prioritisation of risks and key concerns	9
4. Assessing and addressing risks	9
5. Stakeholder engagement	10
6. Tracking	11
7. Grievance mechanisms and our commitment to remedy	11
Part II: Human Rights Due Diligence undertaken in 2023	12
1. Supply Chain	12
2. Communities	16
3. Own Workforce	19
Part III: Our work going forward	20
About this statement	21

2 Human Rights Statement 2023

Message from the CEO

2023 marked the 75th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights - a landmark achievement at the time of proclamation by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948 as it set out a universal protection of fundamental human rights.

Sadly, 2023 was also a year with armed conflicts, geopolitical tensions and deterioration of the situation for vulnerable groups in many parts of the world, including for women, children, indigenous peoples and minorities.

Equinor's role is to be a stable and reliable energy provider that contributes to societal progress at large. In this role, we have embarked on a journey to transition our existing energy systems in support of a net zero society. For such a transition to be successful, it must also be seen as just and inclusive from the perspective of the people feeling its impact.

Our commitment to respecting human rights is contributing to the safety, health and security of all people involved in and affected by our business. It is also important for people's ability to live meaningful lives, develop their skills and enjoy their full potential.

Companies like Equinor do not operate in a vacuum. We often need to navigate conflicting dilemmas and balance competing expectations. As such, there are limits to what we can achieve - alone or collectively - in the face of systemic issues and weak governance in many countries across the world. However, we believe in the enhancement of our human rights efforts and continue to seek ways

to strengthen our own human rights due diligence performance.

That is why we in 2023 have taken new steps to increase collaboration with peers and other stakeholders to understand how to address common challenges in global supply chains. Other notable efforts include strengthening our internal requirements and processes for human rights due diligence to ensure alignment with new and emerging legislation within sustainability.

In this spirit of continuous improvement, collaboration and transparency we continue our efforts to respect the rights of people across the whole of our operations in line with our Human Rights Policy.

Anders Opedal, President and CEO

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Introduction

Equinor is an international energy company headquartered in Norway, with activities in more than 30 countries. Most of our operations take place in our core countries Norway, the United Kingdom, Brazil and the United States. Our portfolio of projects encompasses oil and gas, renewables and low-carbon solutions. Our activities span from exploration, development and production, electricity generation, transportation, processing and refining. Our products are offered to the market through our marketing and trading operations. We have over 22,000 employees, of which 85% are based in Norway. Across our global supply chain, we engage with around 8,000 first-tier suppliers.

Equinor can be connected to human rights impacts on our workforce, workers in the supply chain, and communities affected by our business. This connection to risks and impacts can happen primarily through these paths:

1. Through our direct operations
2. Through our suppliers and their sub-suppliers
3. Through our partnerships, where we are a non- operating partner
4. Together with our partners, in joint operating companies / joint ventures or other forms of shared responsibility for a project execution or operation

How we assess and address risks of adverse human rights impacts is guided by our Human Rights Policy (Policy) and varies in these different paths and across our different business areas. Further information regarding how our business is structured through business areas, including details of the activities undertaken in the various parts of our business, can be found in the Annual Report for 2023, available on equinor.com.

Understanding and managing the risk of adverse human rights impacts related to our business remains at the core of our human rights commitment. We recognise that our business can cause, contribute to, or be linked to negative human rights impacts, especially in jurisdictions with weak regulatory frameworks or enforcement. We use a risk-based approach to embed our human rights commitment in our business activities from the initial business development stages through project planning, execution, operations, decommissioning and any potential exits.

This human rights statement is divided into three main sections.

Part 1: Our Approach - Overview of our human rights-related policies, procedures. governance, and core human rights due diligence activities.

Part 2: Human Rights Due Diligence Undertaken in 2023 - Overview of actions taken in 2023 to address specific impacts identified through our HRDD efforts.

Part 3: Our Work Going Forward - Overview of our human rights ambitions moving forward.

Given the range of the salient human rights issues covered by our Policy, layered onto the complexity of our business activities, we have in this statement particularly focused on the human rights risks and issues that are most prevalent in our current portfolio. Other topics that intersect with human rights include; our approach to the just transition, safety performance related to the more traditional health and safety aspects, our work

to address discrimination and harassment, and diversity and inclusion. These are all covered separately in our Annual Reports, previous Annual Sustainability Reports and on equinor.com.

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Our business Equinor is present in around 30 countries around the world.

KEY ACTIVITIES

EXP = Exploration

D&P = Development & production REN = Renewables

M&T = Marketing & Trading R&P = Refining & processing LC = Low carbon project funnel

OPERATOR OF ASSETS		PARTNERSHIPS AND PRESENCE
Brazil	EXP	D&P	REN	M&T		Algeria	D&P		Canada
Norway	EXP	D&P	REN	M&T	R&P LC	Angola	EXP	D&P	China
UK	EXP	D&P	REN	M&T	LC	Argentina	EXP	D&P	Denmark
USA	EXP	D&P	REN	M&T	LC	Australia	REN		France
Poland	REN					Azerbaijan1	EXP	D&P	Germany
						Belgium	M&T		India

EXP	D&P	M&T	Japan	REN	South Korea	REN
M&T			Libya	D&P	Spain	REN
M&T	REN		Netherlands	LC REN	Suriname	EXP
REN			Nigeria1	D&P	Tanzania	EXP
REN	M&T	LC	Singapore	M&T	Vietnam	REN
M&T				1) Countries we announced exits from in 2023.

The overview includes countries with fully owned subsidiaries of Equinor.

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Part I: Our approach

In this section, we provide an overview of how we embed the business responsibility to respect human rights in our policies, governance and internal work processes.

1. Our commitment to respecting human rights

Equinor's Human Rights Journey

In Equinor, our practices and behaviours are shaped by the principles captured in the 'Equinor Book', which hosts the Code of Conduct. The Code sets out our expectations, commitments and requirements for ethical conduct, and applies to Equinor's board members, employees and hired personnel.

Equinor's Human Rights Policy, also included in the Equinor Book, confirms our commitment to alignment with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and expresses our respect for all internationally recognised human rights, including those set out in the International Bill of Human Rights and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

Both the Code of Conduct and the Human Rights Policy are owned by the Board of Directors (BoD), also reflecting how we believe respecting people is a key business enabler.

To succeed, Equinor relies on a large number of suppliers, in multi-layered tiers. This supplier universe employs an extensive number of workers, all part

of Equinor's human rights scope. Hence, specific 'Human Rights Expectations of Suppliers' have been adopted, intended for all current and future suppliers.

We seek all our suppliers to develop and implement a "do no harm" approach consistent with the goals of the UNGPs. Specifically, we expect our suppliers to s share the spirit and intent of Equinor's human rights commitment, be transparent about incidents, challenges and efforts, engage their own supply chain and be determined to continuously improve. In return, we commit to support our suppliers in their efforts.

Human rights standards we expect of all our suppliers include:

• Ensuring fair treatment and non-discrimination
• Providing safe, healthy and secure workplace and accommodation
• Providing fair wages and reasonable working hours
• Respecting freedom of assembly, association and the right to collective bargaining
• Preventing modern slavery
• Preventing child labour and protecting young workers
• Respecting affected community members
• Providing access to remedy

In 2000, Equinor (Statoil at the time) was one of 33 companies that supported the UN Global Compact Principles from day one, an initiative that now has 15,000 participating companies.

In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council gave us an even more tangible tool to address human rights with the adoption of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). The same year, we were among the first companies to commit to the UNGPs which later were included as part of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

In 2015, Equinor adopted the stand-alone Human Rights Policy (Policy). The Policy is translated into 11 languages and is easily available to both internal and external stakeholders on equinor.com.

Our Policy was developed based on a bottom- up assessment of typical human rights risks relevant to our sector and set of activities and projects, aligned with specific issues we had come across or were concerned with. Various internal and external stakeholders and experts were consulted for inputs and advice.

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2. Embedding human rights into the way we work

Human Rights Governance

The corporate executive committee, chaired by the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and inclusive of the company Executive Vice Presidents, is ultimately responsible for day-to-day operations and business-wide strategy, goals, actions, and investments.

Twice a year the BoD's Safety, Sustainability and Ethics Committee (SSEC) receives a report from the administration on its efforts to implement the Policy. Deep dives on specific human rights matters, cases or particular risks are brought to the BoD or the SSEC routinely as well as upon request. As part of the regular corporate risk and performance updates by the CEO to the BoD, all identified severe human rights risks are reported.

A Human Rights Steering Committee meets at least four times per year. The committee oversees the status of the human rights work, discusses specific challenges and dilemmas, reviews external trends and developments, and endorses internal improvement initiatives and new requirements. The committee is chaired by the Executive Vice President (EVP) for Safety, Security and Sustainability, and comprises EVPs for: Projects, Drilling and Procurement; Exploration and Production International; Midstream, Marketing and Processing; Renewables; Communications; Legal and Compliance; and People and Organisation.

Global ownership of human rights sits within the Corporate Climate and Sustainability team, which is part of the Equinor Safety, Security and Sustainability corporate function. In practice, this means that Corporate Climate and Sustainability is responsible for policy and advocacy, developing internal requirements, guidelines and tools for Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD), supporting implementation throughout the business, performing capacity building, and for internal and external reporting.

Assessing and addressing human rights risks in daily operations is according to Equinor' governance model a business line responsibility. That means that the relevant line, within its portfolio, shall ensure that a risk-based approach to HRDD is applied and that activities are subject to HRDD in accordance with our Policy and specific internal requirements. Similarly, each business line is responsible for reacting to emerging risks and conducting additional HRDD where a need arises.

Lastly, Equinor has a group Competence Centre that includes a group of human rights specialists tasked with supporting the business lines and the corporate functions in their HRDD efforts. Similarly, there are dedicated resources in Equinor's legal and compliance department.

Board of Directors

Safety, Sustainability and Ethics Comittee

Corporate Executive Committee

Human Rights Steering Committee

Chair	EVP	EVP	EVP
Projects,	Exploration	Midstream,		EVP	EVP	EVP
EVP Safety,	EVP
Drilling and	and	Marketing	Communi-	Legal and	People and
Security and	Renewables
Procure-	Production	and	cation	Compliance	Organisation
Sustainability
ment	International	Processing

Corporate Safety, Security and Sustainability

Corporate Climate and Sustainability

Business Area

Exploration	Exploration			Technology,	Projects,	Marketing,
and	and
Renewables	Digital &	Drilling and	Midstream and
Production	Production
		Innovation	Procurement	Processing
Norway	International
Competence Center Human Rights Specialists			Legal Human Rights Resources

Ultimate

oversight

responsibility

Company strategy, goals and actions

Quarterly oversight

Global

ownership

Implementation of human rights due dilligence in daily operations

Support function

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Our Human Rights Due Diligence Systems

HRDD is embedded in our management system through functional requirements, governing documents and work processes, in a combination of dedicated documents concerning HRDD, and HRDD requirements embedded in other specific requirements.

HRDD in the Enterprise Risk Management frameworkInternationally recognised human rights are embedded within Equinor's Enterprise Risk Management framework (ERM), a mandatory tool for risk management across all business activities.

By utilising the tool, we set out to assess, document, report and follow-up the risk of adverse impacts on the human rights of people touched by our business, including the activities of our suppliers and partners. Requirements to mitigate and report on human rights risks are aligned with how we manage safety risks.

This means that risks above a defined severity level must be mitigated as soon as possible, and shall be reported through the line, including to CEO and BoD as part of regular risk updates. See more in Section 4 - Assessing and addressing human rights risks.

HRDD in business development

As part of the overall business development process, a toolbox for HRDD exists. This includes targeted questionnaires, templates for contract clauses, guidelines for the consideration of potential red flags, and recommendations for actions and deliverables per decision gate. The toolbox also includes examples of good practice. The purpose of these tools is to support early identification of risks and allow decisions to be made based on all available

information, including to which extent risks can be prevented or effectively mitigated. This also allows for early identification of actions to enable effective risk management as well as what resources such management will imply. Requirements for conducting HRDD also applies to country or asset exits.

HRDD in our Supply Chain Management processRequirements for how to perform HRDD in procurement are embedded in the corporate Supply Chain Management process. All new contracts

are set to undergo an initial risk screening. Where the initial assessment has identified that there is a more qualified human rights risk, further actions should be considered. These could include detailed prequalification questionnaires, supplier engagement and audits, and on-site assessments including worker interviews. Lastly, the consequences of managing the residual risk once a contract has been effectuated shall be factored into follow-up plans. We seek either basic or more extensive human rights provisions, dependent on risk and the outcome of the procurement process and contract negotiations, in all procurement contracts.

Capacity building

Building on a strong Policy foundation, our human rights work has gradually pivoted more towards focusing on the strengthening of our capacity to manage human rights across our workforce, suppliers, peers, and industry associations. This type of engagement offers insights and experiences to enable a more open discussion on human rights challenges and management best practices.

Stand-alone human rights requirements in the Corporate Management System

• Working Requirement - Human Rights Due Diligence - setting out requirements for how to perform human rights due diligence throughout Equinor's activities
• Working Requirement - Sustainability Data - setting out requirements for recording of sustainability data, including data related to human rights training, human rights due diligence, Community Grievance Mechanisms and remedy.
• Working Requirement - Community Based Grievance Mechanisms - setting out requirements for establishing and running effective Operational level Community Grievance Mechanisms in the Equinor group.
• Working Requirement - The rights of indigenous and tribal people - setting out requirements and guiding principles aimed at ensuring respect for the rights of indigenous peoples affected by our operations.

HRDD requirements are embedded in e.g.,

• Supply Chain Management Process
• Business Development Process
• Enterprise Risk Management Process

External engagement

To stay informed and further improve ourselves, as well as to contribute to helping others advance, we engage and collaborate externally with key partners and associations:

• We have been a long-standing participant to the international Shift Business Learning Programme
• We engage regularly with the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) and other state-owned companies in Norway
• We engage with human rights specialist organisations such as Shift, Impactt, Triple R Alliance and Synergy Global Consulting
• We are a member of IPIECA, the global oil and gas association for advancing environmental and social performance across the energy transition
• We are observers to the Business Network on Civic Freedoms and Human Rights Defenders
• We deliver guest lectures through our CEMS Global Alliance in Management Education corporate partnership and upon request from other academic institutions or organizations
• We prioritise participation at UN Annual Forum for Business and Human Rights

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3. Prioritisation of risks and key concerns

4. Assessing and addressing risks

Actions to address remaining risks once a project is sanctioned or an investment decision is made should be included in project execution or asset follow-up plans.

In the Human Rights Policy, we define particular commitments related to our key risks (commonly referred to as 'salient issues'), which guide our HRDD efforts.

These areas of particular priority are;

• Discrimination
• Working conditions
• Forced and child labour
• Affected community members
• Security activities

At business area level, we aim to set both generic and specific human rights priorities. A generic priority could be an activity type that generally is considered to carry higher risk and as such should be subject

to deeper HRDD, while a specific priority could be a project, asset or supplier with known or potential higher risk. These priorities are to be re-assessed and updated at regular intervals. In addition to guiding our HRDD efforts, they inform how we build capabilities and deploy expert capacity.

Within supply chain, priorities are set based on the following considerations:

• What degree of impact does Equinor have on the technical specification of the product being delivered by the supplier?
• What is the duration of the relationship with the supplier
• Where in the supply chain is the activity performed?
• Does Equinor own, lease, rent or utilise the equipment or plant?

Based on our current portfolio, priorities, and experience from human rights risk assessments, we

consider the most severe human rights issue to be the risk of poor working conditions, including possible indicators of forced labour, within our supply chains.

There are also possible impacts on land and fishing communities related to on- or offshore infrastructure or activities we are linked to both relating to traditional oil and gas activities as well as in the renewables space. As we accelerate our growth in renewables and develop low-carbon solutions, more of our operations will be onshore, also in regions with indigenous populations. Hence, we foresee that the risk of adverse impacts on local communities could rise and require increased attention going forward.

Relevant to our internal workforce, the main risk is currently assessed to be various forms of discrimination and harassment. The limited specific risks and impacts identified or reported related to our own workforce are routinely handled through established internal procedures for misconduct matters and are not covered in more detail as part of this statement.

All internationally

recognised human rights

Scope:	Scale:
how many	how grave
persons	is the
aected?	impact?

Remediability:

can the

impact be repaired?

Proritise risk accord to severity and likelihood of impact

As referenced in Section 2, requirements for how to conduct human rights risk assessments are integrated into our Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework. The required steps to assess risk level are:

• Define asset or activity in scope
• Map human rights at risk of being impacted
• Identify potentially affected stakeholders
• Determine risk level using predefined impact categories and probability scale

Where we are not able to engage directly with potentially affected stakeholders to inform our risk assessment, for example, if we have no access or prior relationship to build on, we use credible sources such as independent expert advisors, local or international NGOs, human rights defenders or other members

of civil society and credible proxies to inform our assessment.

We apply the UNGPs' concept of cause, contribution, and direct linkage to determine what actions we should take in each case. When prioritising such actions, the concept of scale, scope and irremediability (severity) is applied.

As risks are identified, measures to avoid or effectively mitigate these can be explored to inform decision- making as the business case moves towards the next milestone. For instance, in the event an impact assessment has concluded that a physical installation could impact a local community or create a conflict with other stakeholders in the area, we consider if there are alternative concepts or execution methods to avoid such impacts entirely. Potential measures could include re-routing a pipeline or cable, scaling down the footprint of a plant, or introducing specific technical barriers.

In practice, this means that where we have identified a risk of a supplier not meeting our standards, we seek to define actions in collaboration with the supplier, often supported by a third-party expert, and in accordance with our internal guidelines. The action plan can where possible form part of the contract, and follow-up procedures are sought included in internal project follow-up plans. Often, we perform on-site verifications to confirm that actions have been taken and to assess if outcomes have been effective. The risk level as reflected in our risk-management systems should not be reduced unless a mitigating action has proven effective.

The level of depth and frequency in which an asset or unit assesses its human rights risks will depend on several factors such as the complexity of business operations, supply chain and other business relations, the context and severity of risks, and the nature and context of planned operations. Operating in higher risk environments or volatile contexts may create an additional need to revisit a previous risk assessment.

Where we have identified actual adverse impacts, such as for instance impacts resulting from resettlement of a household or the finding of payments of recruitment fees, we seek ways to secure restitution to the satisfaction of the affected person, consulting external good practice and recognised international HRDD frameworks and guidelines.

For certain issues, typically of systemic nature, there are routinely limitations to what Equinor can achieve in terms of avoidance, mitigation, or remediation. See separate section on Systemic issues in Part II.

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5. Stakeholder engagement

The way in which we engage with actually or potentially affected stakeholders varies with the types of activity and stakeholders.

Own workforce

It is imperative that our own employees feel respected, safe, and secure and that they can have an open dialogue with the organization. Such dialogue is fostered through leadership, employee representations and safety delegates.

At Equinor, we actively use the annual Global People Survey (GPS) to determine targeted actions to enhance inclusion and combat discrimination in our organization. Initiatives to build skills and prepare our people for the future should be equally available to all Equinor employees, regardless of age, gender, and nationality. We are dedicated to conducting our operations in a socially responsible manner to adapt to the just energy transition and we embed diversity and inclusion (D&I) in our human resources processes. In Equinor, D&I aligns with our values, our focus on safety and our purpose as a company.

The safety delegate service at Equinor covers offshore installations, plants and office locations through a network of volunteers who are elected to represent the employees in matters concerning safety, health and working environment. The safety delegates are important partners to management in addressing concerns and proposals for improving working conditions.

We respect our employees' freedom of association, and thus also their right to collective bargaining and cooperation through representative bodies, a guiding principle for all our activities, in all markets. The specific ways in which we involve and consult employees or their appropriate representatives may vary according to local laws and practices.

We continuously seek to improve how to have meaningful and continuous engagement with employees.

Supply chain workers

Important to the success of project execution is close follow- up and on-site presence at construction and fabrication yards.

Through e.g., safety inspectors, we regularly meet workers and seek to build trust to ensure people feel safe to speak up about issues or concerns.

Specifically, to address labour rights issues, we use third-party experts to visit certain identified sites and construction yards, to conduct stakeholder engagement via on-site interviews directly with workers in local languages. This allows us to hear their experiences and concerns first-hand and establishes a feedback loop for continued engagement. Perspectives and insights from worker testimonies are actively used to inform risk assessments for ongoing and new projects.

Community members

Engaging with potentially and actually affected people is an integrated part of our model for project planning and execution. This often takes place through our Impact Assessment (IA) process where we map stakeholders and seek their input.

Given our various types of business activities, engagements with potentially affected stakeholders may take place before we have finalised agreements with host authorities. Practicing stakeholder engagement in these situations can be challenging, and we often use trusted third parties with knowledge of local conditions and international standards to support us. Such actions may include public consultations, surveys, interviews, one-to-one meetings, or community panels to better understand the concerns of members of local communities. IAs performed for Equinor-operated assets are routinely published and available on equinor.com.

Once our projects are in operation, regular stakeholder engagement continues via our asset management team. This may include having community liaison officers working in community locations, and to having office-located points of contact assigned to community groups or municipalities. We seek to have multiple methods of contact to suit each situation, such as centralised local landline numbers, in-app communication messaging, email addresses, and operational-level grievance mechanisms. See Section 7 Remedy and grievance mechanisms for more details.

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