BP 2008 Annual Report Download - page 15

BP Annual Report and Accounts 2008
Performance review
Business continuity and disaster recovery
Contingency plans are required to continue or recover operations
following a disruption or incident. Inability to restore or replace critical
capacity to an agreed level within an agreed timeframe would prolong
the impact of any disruption and could severely affect business
and operations.
Crisis management
Crisis management plans and capability are essential to deal with
emergencies at every level of our operations. If we do not respond or are
perceived not to respond in an appropriate manner to either an external or
internal crisis, our business and operations could be severely disrupted.
People and capability
Employee training, development and successful recruitment of new staff,
in particular petroleum engineers and scientists, are key to implementing
our plans. Inability to develop the human capacity and capability across
the organization could jeopardize performance delivery.
Treasury and trading activities
In the normal course of business, we are subject to operational risk
around our treasury and trading activities. Control of these activities
is highly dependent on our ability to process, manage and monitor
a large number of complex transactions across many markets and
currencies. Shortcomings or failures in our systems, risk management
methodology, internal control processes or people could lead to
disruption of our business, financial loss, regulatory intervention or
damage to our reputation.
Forward-looking statements
In order to utilize the ‘Safe Harbor’ provisions of the United States Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, BP is providing the following
cautionary statement. This document contains certain forward-looking
statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations
and businesses of BP and certain of the plans and objectives of BP with
respect to these items. These statements may generally, but not always,
be identified by the use of words such as ‘will’, ‘expects’, ‘is expected to’,
‘aims’, ‘should’, ‘may’, ‘objective’, ‘is likely to’, ‘intends’, ‘believes’, ‘plans’,
‘we see’ or similar expressions. In particular, among other statements, (i)
certain statements in Performance review (pages 10-60) with regard to
strategy, management aims and objectives, future capital expenditure,
future hydrocarbon production volume, date(s) or period(s) in which
production is scheduled or expected to come onstream or a project or
action is scheduled or expected to begin or be completed, capacity of
planned plants or facilities and impact of health, safety and environmental
regulations; (ii) the statements in Performance review (pages 10-49) with
regard to planned expansion, investment or other projects and future
regulatory actions; and (iii) the statements in Performance review (pages
50-63) with regard to the plans of the group, the cost of and provision for
future remediation programmes, taxation, liquidity and costs for providing
pension and other post-retirement benefits; and including under ‘Liquidity
and capital resources’ with regard to oil prices, production, demand for
refining products, refining volumes and margins and impact on the
petrochemicals sector, refining availability, continuing priority of safe,
compliant and reliable operations, and focus on cost efficiency, cost
deflation, capital expenditure, expected disposal proceeds, cash flows,
shareholder distributions, gearing, working capital, guarantees, expected
payments under contractual and commercial commitments and purchase
obligations; are all forward-looking in nature.
By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty
because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will or
may occur in the future and are outside the control of BP. Actual results
may differ materially from those expressed in such statements,
depending on a variety of factors, including the specific factors identified
in the discussions accompanying such forward-looking statements; the
timing of bringing new fields onstream; future levels of industry product
supply, demand and pricing; operational problems; general economic
conditions; political stability and economic growth in relevant areas of the
world; changes in laws and governmental regulations; exchange rate
fluctuations; development and use of new technology; the success or
otherwise of partnering; the actions of competitors; natural disasters and
adverse weather conditions; changes in public expectations and other
changes to business conditions; wars and acts of terrorism or sabotage;
and other factors discussed elsewhere in this report including under ‘Risk
factors’ on pages 12-14. In addition to factors set forth elsewhere in this
report, those set out above are important factors, although not exhaustive,
that may cause actual results and developments to differ materially from
those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.
Statements regarding competitive
position
Statements referring to BP’s competitive position are based on the
company’s belief and, in some cases, rely on a range of sources, including
investment analysts’ reports, independent market studies and BP’s internal
assessments of market share based on publicly available information
about the financial results and performance of market participants.
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