BP to act on damning Texas City report
18 Jan 2007
Houston, Texas -- BP plc will implement the recommendations made by an independent safety review panel to improve its safety culture and process safety management at its five US refineries. The company made the announcement in response to a damning report from the BP US Refineries Independent Safety Review Panel into the blast at BP’s Texas City refinery on 23 March 2005, in which 15 people were killed and many injured.
The BP US Refineries Independent Safety Review Panel’s remit was to carry out a thorough, independent assessment of corporate oversight of safety management systems at BP’s five US refineries and of its corporate safety culture. The Panel did not, however, investigate the Texas City incident or any other past event.
The Panel, which was led by former US Secretary of State James Baker, identified failures in process safety procedures at the US refineries and called on BP to give process safety the same priority it gives personal safety and environmental performance. The report also recommended improvements to BP's “process safety leadership, systems, expertise and oversight of process safety performance.”
BP appointed the Panel in October 2005 in response to a recommendation of the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), which is investigated the Texas City incident. According to BP, it has already taken measures that bring it into line with the report recommendations, and will develop plans for further action at its US refineries and elsewhere.
“We asked for a candid assessment from this diverse group of experts and they delivered one. We will use this report to enhance and continue the substantial effort already underway to improve safety culture and process safety management at our facilities," said John Browne, BP chief executive, in a 16 Jan statement.
BP said it has taken significant action to reduce risk and improve process safety performance at all its facilities. This, it said, include forming a senior executive team to oversee process safety, integrity management, and operational integrity initiatives and a new “Safety and Operations” function to establish group operations and process safety standards and auditing safety and operations performance.
According to the company, there will also be a significant expansion of the responsibilities and powers of Robert Malone, the new chairman and president of BP America for monitoring its US operations to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and company standards.
BP said it will also increase and accelerate spending from $1.2 billion in 2005 to an average of $1.7 billion per year from 2007 to 2010 to improve the integrity and reliability of its US refining assets.
Other measures announced by BP include:
- Systems to manage process safety at the refineries are undergoing a major upgrade, with some $200 million earmarked to pay for 300 external experts who are conducting comprehensive audits and re-designs, where necessary, of all process safety systems.
- External recruitment across its US refining businesses to increase underlying capability in operations and engineering.
- Installation of modern process control systems on major units, a more powerful maintenance management system, improvements in worker training, and the removal of blow-down stacks which vent heavier than air light hydrocarbons to atmosphere.