BP 2011 Annual Report Download - page 70

68 BP Annual Report and Form 20-F 2011
Business review
our review of all the plans, we are introducing additional requirements to
enhance the mitigation of similar risks across our refining business.
Operational planning and controls
Each BP-operated entity develops an annual plan drawing on the output
from the performance improvement cycle including the risk management
process. The plan is prioritized with the aim of continually driving reductions
in the level of risk at the sites. We plan our work taking account of the
capacity needed to deliver the safety-related activities required.
Control of work has been an area of major focus in our refining
business since 2008. We continue to see improvement in the execution
of our maintenance planning, scheduling and work activities across our
refining sites as the overall control of work process is better understood,
learning shared and efficiency opportunities identified.
Competence and capability
Refinery leaders are experienced operations professionals with many
years’ experience within the industry and have typically attended the BP
Operations Academy. Each refinery, with S&OR direction and expertise,
is developing a consistent competency framework against which safety
critical roles are assessed. The US refineries completed process safety
competency assessments of over 3,500 employees in safety-critical roles
and developed gap closure plans in 2011.
A key element within this competency development plan is the
development of high fidelity process simulators. These will be used to train
operators via simulations to respond to low probability, high consequence
scenarios, similar to methods used with airline pilots.
Measurement, evaluation and corrective action
Regional vice presidents conduct performance reviews at each refinery.
We now use a set of common safety metrics that are standard across all
sites to help us proactively identify opportunities for improvement.
A quarterly assurance process has been introduced to enable S&OR
to develop an ongoing, independent view of OMS conformance by the
sites. Each site is assessed on their OMS self-assessment processes, the
strength of existing risk mitigations and progress on risk reduction plans.
Periodic S&OR audits against OMS requirements provide valuable insights
from experts outside the site and result in actions to close identified gaps.
In 2011, we strengthened and standardized our approach to
incident learning in our refining business, issuing briefings and alerts
on lessons learned from incidents and near misses and requiring each
refinery to assure that similar risks are assessed and appropriate actions
completed.
Reports of the US refineries’ Independent Expert
L. Duane Wilson was appointed in 2007 by the board as an Independent
Expert to provide an objective assessment of BP’s progress in
implementing the recommendations of the BP US Refineries Independent
Safety Review Panel (the Panel) aimed at improving process safety
performance at BP’s five US refineries. Mr Wilson is expected to deliver
his fifth annual report in April 2012, and BP will publish it at bp.com/
independentexpert. As in prior years, BP will have an opportunity to review
and comment on Mr Wilson’s draft report for factual accuracy, but he is
solely responsible for the report’s ultimate content.
The Independent Expert conducts his assessment of BP’s
implementation of the Panel’s recommendations both through sampling
and in-depth monitoring, evaluation and confirmation. Mr Wilson visited
each BP US refinery at least twice in 2011 and interviewed personnel at
many levels in the organization. He also engaged regularly with senior and
executive management, both within Refining and Marketing and our safety
and operational risk function, to gauge implementation progress. Mr Wilson
also reviews progress reports and other documentation from BP. These
include implementation status reports, process safety performance
reports, overtime reports (to monitor the potential for worker fatigue), open
and overdue process safety action item reports, incident investigations
reports and safety audit reports.
Mr Wilson reports to the board through the chairman of BP’s safety,
ethics and environment assurance committee. In addition to an annual
written report, he makes periodic oral reports of his observations to
the committee, in which he gives status updates on BP’s progress in
implementing the Panel’s recommendations.
Safety performance
Oil spills and loss of primary containment
We monitor the integrity of our operations, tanks, vessels and pipelines
used to produce, process and transport oil and other hydrocarbons – with
the aim of preventing the loss of material from its primary containment.
Accordingly, we record losses of material, including hydrocarbons, from our
assets, and losses or spills that reach land or water.
The loss of primary containment metric below includes unplanned
or uncontrolled releases from a tank, vessel, pipe, rail car or equipment
used for containment or transfer within our operational boundary, excluding
non-hazardous releases such as water.
The US government and third parties have announced various
estimates of the flow rate or total volume of oil spilled from the Deepwater
Horizon incident. The multi-district litigation beginning in 2012 in New
Orleans will address the amount of oil spilled. See Financial statements –
Note 36 on page 233 for information about the volume used to determine
the estimated liabilities.
Loss of primary containment and oil spills (excluding Deepwater
Horizon oil spill in respect of 2010 volume)
2011 2010 2009
Loss of primary containment –
number of all incidentsa361 418 537
Loss of primary containment –
number of oil spillsb228 261 234
Number of oil spills to land and
water 102 142 122
Volume of oil spilled
(thousand litres) 556 1,719 1,191
Volume of oil unrecovered
(thousand litres) 281 758 222
a Does not include either small or non-hazardous releases.
b Number of spills greater than or equal to one barrel (159 litres, 42 US gallons).
Process safety
BP uses a disciplined framework for managing the integrity of hazardous
operating systems and processes. We apply a combination of good design
principles, engineering, and operating and maintenance practices to help
deliver process safety performance and we monitor the number of process
safety events occurring across our operations. The recently introduced
American Petroleum Institute RP-754 standard, which sets out leading
and lagging process safety indicators, organized into different tiers is used
as the basis for our internal process safety-related reporting. API tier 1
process safety events are the losses of primary containment of greatest
consequence – causing harm to a member of the workforce or costly
damage to equipment, or exceeding defined quantities. Seventy-four tier 1
process safety events were reported in BP in 2011.
Personal safety
BP reports publicly on its personal safety performance according to
standard industry metrics. In 2011, our overall reported recordable injury
frequency (RIF) was 0.36, compared with 0.61 in 2010 and 0.34 in 2009.
Our reported day away from work case frequency (DAFWCF) in 2011
was 0.090, compared with 0.193 in 2010 and 0.069 in 2009. The 2010
group personal safety data was affected by the Gulf Coast response effort.