BP 2009 Annual Report Download - page 48

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BP Annual Report and Accounts 2009
Business review
Corporate responsibility
Safety
Safety, people and performance are BP’s top priorities. We constantly
seek to improve our safety performance through the procedures,
processes and training programmes that we implement in pursuit of
our goal of ‘no accidents, no harm to people and no damage to the
environment’.
In 2009, a third-party-operated helicopter carrying contractors
from BP’s Miller platform crashed in the North Sea resulting in the tragic
loss of 16 lives. In addition, BP sustained two fatalities within our own
operations, one, when a rig worker was lost overboard during drilling
operations in Azerbaijan and a second, in a crush injury on a well pad
in Alaska.
We deeply regret the loss of these lives.
Safety and operational performance
In 2009, BP’s safety record continued to improve, as indicated by
measures of personal safety including reported recordable injury
frequency (RIF) and days away from work case frequency (DAFWC).
Our overall RIF of 0.34 was significantly lower than the rate of
0.43 in 2008 and 0.48 in 2007. Our DAFWCF was 0.069, an improvement
on the level of 0.080 in 2008.
In 2009, eight work-related major incidents were reported,
compared with 21 in 2008. Major incidents include incidents resulting in
fatalities, significant property damage or significant environmental
impacts. All fatalities and other major incidents and many that have the
potential to become major incidents, are discussed by the group
operations risk committee (GORC), chaired by the group chief executive.
Our mandatory internal requirement to undertake incident investigations
seeks to ensure that we learn as much as possible from each incident
and take action to prevent re-occurrence.
There were 234 oil spills of one barrel or more reported in 2009, a
significant reduction on the 335 spills that occurred in 2008. The reported
volume of oil spilled in 2009 was approximately 1,191 million litres, a
reduction of 65% compared with 2008.
This performance follows several years of intense focus on
training and procedures across BP. BP’s operating management
system (OMS), which provides a single operating framework for all BP
operations, is a key part of continuing to drive a rigorous approach
to safe operations. 2009 marked an important year in the continuing
implementation of OMS.
Safe, reliable and responsible operations
Having been introduced at eight operating sites in 2008, implementation
of the OMS gathered pace in 2009. The system was up and running at
70 operations across the business by the end of the year, including all our
operated refineries and petrochemicals plants. This represents around
80% of the operations for which OMS implementation is planned, with
the remainder scheduled to be live by the end of 2010.
Taking a systematic approach is integral to improving safety and
operating performance in every BP site. Our OMS covers all areas from
process safety, to personal health, to environmental performance. By
applying consistent principles and processes across the BP group’s
operations, the system provides for an integrated and consistent way of
working. These principles and processes are designed to simplify the
organization, improve productivity, enable consistent execution and focus
BP on performance.
Capability development
Having built a safety and operations learning framework to enhance the
capability of our staff to deliver safe, reliable, responsible and efficient
operations, we defined target populations for these programmes more
accurately in 2009.
More than 2,700 front-line operational leaders across our global
operations have started one or more of the modules within the Operating
Essentials programme which seeks to embed the BP way of operating
as defined by OMS. Our Operations Academy (OA), a partnership with
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is also now well
established. Seven cadres of senior operations staff have already
attended this academy and three of these have graduated: all are
applying their learning and having a deep influence in the operations
community. We also have an Executive Operations Programme which
has continued to support the executive team and senior business leaders
in the development of their unique operations capability requirements.
Process safety management
We continued to implement the 2007 recommendations made by the BP
US Refineries Independent Safety Review Panel (Panel), which following
the incident at Texas City in 2005, reviewed process safety management
at our US refineries and our safety management culture.
In accordance with those recommendations, we appointed an
Independent Expert for a five-year term to monitor their implementation.
We again co-operated closely with the Independent Expert in 2009,
providing him access to our sites, personnel and documentation and
routinely supplying him with progress reports. In the Independent
Expert’s second annual report, published in 2009, he acknowledged BP’s
sustained focus on its safety and operations agenda and the priority
given by executive management and the board to safe, reliable and
responsible operations. The report identified areas for continued focus
and highlighted the progress made in several areas, including the
development of capability programmes, OMS implementation, safety and
operations auditing, and the improvement of metrics to monitor process
safety performance. During the course of 2009, we also provided regular
progress updates to the Safety, Ethics and Environment Assurance
Committee of the board.
See Legal proceedings on pages 99-100 in respect of ongoing
Texas City refinery matters.
By the end of 2009 our safety and operations audit team had
audited a total of 94 BP businesses, including all major operating sites,
within a three-year period. The audits, which in 2009 included pilot audits
for analysis against the requirements of the OMS, have provided a
rigorous process for assessing our businesses against BP’s relevant
standards and requirements.
We also participated in industry-wide forums on process safety.
We chaired the API/ANSI multi-stakeholder group developing a standard
for public reporting of leading and lagging process safety indicators.
Through this and other bodies, we shared our learning with other
organizations within and outside the oil and gas industry.
‘Six-point plan’
Our efforts on process safety included taking action to close out our
six-point plan for process safety, which was launched in 2006 to address
immediate priorities for improving process safety and minimizing risk at
our operations worldwide. We have either completed the required actions
or integrated the few continuing requirements within the OMS, for
tracking to completion. We established a clear approach for future
monitoring of these within the internal HSE & Operations Integrity
Report. This report, which is the key source of management information
relating to safety and operations in BP, is prepared quarterly for the
GORC.