Our Values

Our values are based on five principles. They are: stewardship, integrity, safety, accountability and excellence.

Stewardship
The root word of stewardship, steward, means custodian or keeper. The key idea behind this value is service. As active stewards of El Paso, we serve our fellow employees, our customers, and our shareholders by consistently building long-term value. Of all our five values, this value has the most intrinsic worth. By embracing the idea of stewardship and striving to get it right, El Paso is continuously working toward excellence as a company.

Integrity
At El Paso, integrity is the difference between following a prescribed set of rules that are written down on paper and following principles. At El Paso, when we think about integrity, we think about the concept of true north as opposed to magnetic north. Magnetic north is a couple of degrees off of true north. And that’s a good way to think about the difference between a company that is rules-based and a company that is principles-based. This vision of integrity raises the bar significantly. It doesn’t allow any El Paso employee to fall back on simply following the rules. It requires each of us to actually do what is right. Every El Paso employee is committed to setting the bar high on integrity and continuing to shape El Paso as a principles-based company.

Safety
At El Paso, we’re passionate about safety. Safety is an absolute for our employees, for our contractors, and for the communities where we operate. It’s that simple. But safety can’t just be about today’s safety statistics. Embracing safety as a value means continuing to plan ahead. For example, preventative maintenance across our system is an important part of future safety performance. In this area, we have made outstanding progress by implementing a pipeline integrity program that exceeds new pipeline safety regulations that were passed recently. At El Paso our goal is to finish each day incident and injury free.

Accountability
Accountability is all about doing what we say we’re going to do. As a company, we’re judged solely by the successful execution of our commitments, and we expect and embrace that form of judgment. As a company we can’t afford to accept anything less than full accountability for our commitments. So, we’re especially focused on accountability as we reshape El Paso according to our long-range plan. Accountability measures are a key part of the metrics we use to judge the performance of our business units and a key component of our individual performance reviews. Employees across El Paso are committed to the success of the company.

Excellence
Excellence is both an end in itself and a means toward achieving that end. Excellence is about our willingness as a company to set and meet the highest standards, to raise the bar on our performance, day-by-day, and across the board. El Paso employees aren’t content to work for a company with a decent balance sheet, a good set of pipeline assets, and a decent exploration and production group. Instead, we all want to work for a company recognized for its commitment to excellence.