BP 2007 Annual Report Download - page 42

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BP’s other activities, including its interests in pipelines and its
commodities and trading activities, are also subject to a broad range of
legislation and regulations in various countries in which it operates.
Health, safety and environmental regulations are discussed in more
detail in Environment on page 41.
For certain information regarding environmental proceedings, see
Environment – US regional review on page 43.
Safety
This section reviews BP’s 2007 performance with respect to safety and
the environment. An overview of our non-financial performance will
appear in BP Sustainability Report 2007, expected to be published in
May 2008.
In total, there were seven workforce fatalities relating to BP operations
in 2007, compared with the same number in 2006. Two were the result
of shootings relating to our retail operations in South Africa, two occurred
in operations at our US refineries in Cherry Point and Texas City, one was
on board a BP marine vessel, one was road-related and one an accident
involving a defective fire extinguisher in Indonesia. We deeply regret the
loss of any lives. These incidents re-emphasize the need for constant
vigilance in seeking to secure the safety of all members of our
workforce.
Our employee and contractor reported recordable injury frequency in
2007 was 0.48 per 200,000 hours worked, the same as that for 2006
(2006 data was corrected from 0.47 to 0.48), and below the industry
average for 2006.
Implementing Baker Panel recommendations
Throughout 2007, BP continued to progress the process safety
enhancement programme initiated in response to the March 2005 incident
at the Texas City refinery. We worked to implement the recommendations
of the BP US Refineries Independent Safety Review Panel (the panel),
which issued its report on the incident in January 2007 (see
www.bp.com/bakerpanelreport).
We have made material progress throughout the group across all of
the panel’s 10 recommendations. Action can be grouped under the
following headings:
Leadership
Our executive team carried out site visits, which included BP’s five US
refineries. Board members also undertook site visits, including one to the
Texas City refinery. We have consistently communicated that safe and
reliable operations are our highest priority. Our safety and operations
audit group was strengthened and completed 28 audits in 2007.
Management systems
Implementation of our operating management system (OMS) began at a
first group of sites that included all five US refineries (see page 41).We
continued implementing the group’s ‘six-point plan’, which focuses on
key priorities for investment and action associated with safe operations
(see below).
Knowledge and expertise
We established an executive-level training programme, ran process
safety workshops and launched an operations academy for site-based
staff to enhance process safety capability. Specialists have been
deployed at our US refineries to accelerate priority improvement
programmes.
Culture
To reinforce the need for a stronger safety culture, our in-house team
undertook assessments of BP’s safety culture, supported by
communication from leadership.
Indicators
Progress has been made in developing leading and lagging indicators,
building on metrics already reported to executive management. These
include measures on the competency of employees in roles critical to
safety and on the development of appropriate operating procedures. We
are working with the industry to develop indicators and this already
includes progress to agree a metric covering loss of primary
containment.
Progress at Texas City and our other US refineries
Across the US refining system, we have worked to address factors that
contributed to the Texas City refinery incident of 2005, including facility
siting, atmospheric relief systems, operating procedures and operator
training, as well as control of work systems and process safety culture
and leadership.
The refineries have engaged with employees on how to improve
process safety. Each refinery is creating a strategic implementation plan
to reduce process safety risk on a continuous improvement basis and to
implement the OMS. With the United Steel Workers Union, we have
reached agreement in principle to work jointly to improve safety across
four represented refineries. At Texas City, face-to-face communication
with staff has been supplemented by The Future is Now,amonthly
magazine widely circulated across the group.
Approximately 640 new staff were hired across our US refineries,
strengthening our support of engineering, inspection and process safety.
Further information on Texas City and other refineries can be found in
the Refining and Marketing section on page 28.
Implementing the six-point plan
We set out our immediate priorities for improving process safety
management and reducing risk at our operations worldwide through a
six-point plan. This plan, launched in 2006, pre-dated the panel’s
recommendations and creates a foundation for our approach.
Progress on the plan’s elements is reviewed each quarter by the
executive-level group operations risk committee (GORC).
We have taken the following actions in relation to the six-point plan:
– In 2007, we implemented a group practice on occupied portable
buildings and removed all temporary buildings out of high-risk zones in
refineries and major onshore plants. We continue to apply the practice
and report progress on identification and removal of relevant buildings
to the GORC. A total of 17 blow-down stacks – all of those on heavier-
than-air light hydrocarbon streams in refineries – have been removed
from service. The one remaining blow-down stack, at a chemical plant
in Malaysia, is scheduled to be removed from service during 2008.
– We have completed 50 major accident risk assessments (MARs). The
assessments identify high-level risks that, if they occur, would have a
major effect on people or the environment. Many of these risks, such
as a loss of containment from our operations, are common across the
industry. Mitigation plans to manage and respond to identified risks
form part of the MAR analysis.
– We are implementing group standards for integrity management and
control of work on a locally risk-assessed and prioritized basis.
Progress on implementing the standards is tracked quarterly. We have
spent $6 billion on integrity management in the course of 2007,
principally related to operating costs for maintenance and capital costs
for plant improvement.
– We have continued to improve the way in which we seek to ensure
our operations maintain compliance with health and safety laws and
regulations. A project to establish a consistent compliance
management framework has been under way in the US during the
past two years and is expected to be completed globally by the end of
2008.
– Reviews have been undertaken resulting in many actions being closed
out from past audits. Other actions requiring closure have been
identified.
– Senior HSE advisors have carried out a preliminary assessment of the
operational experience of BP management teams responsible for
major production or manufacturing plant and any significant
assessment findings have been addressed.