The Baker Panel Report - ABSA

cultures, process safety management systems, and corporate oversight mechanisms, the Panel sincerely believes that the safety of the world’srefineries, chemical plants, and other process facilities will be improved and lives will be saved.The commentary below is an integral part of the recommendations, and each commentary should be read in conjunction with the relatedrecommendation.RECOMMENDATION #1—PROCESS SAFETY LEADERSHIPThe Board of Directors of BP p.l.c, BP’s executive management (including its Group Chief Executive), and other members of BP’scorporate management must provide effective leadership on and establish appropriate goals for process safety. Those individuals mustdemonstrate their commitment to process safety by articulating a clear message on the importance of process safety and matching thatmessage both with the policies they adopt and the actions they take.Commentary(1) “Provide effective leadership on and establish appropriate goals”—Process safety leadership in an organization must start at the top. TheBoard of Directors of BP p.l.c., its Group Chief Executive, and corporate management as a group must set the process safety “tone at the top”and establish appropriate expectations regarding process safety performance. Those expectations must reflect an unwavering commitment toprocess safety and infuse into BP’s workforce the mindset that process accidents are not acceptable. Those expectations must also betranslated into measurable goals designed to move BP toward the achievement of excellence in process safety performance.(2) “Demonstrate their commitment to process safety by”—(a) “articulating a clear message on the importance of process safety”—BP’s corporate management should communicate a clear, frequent,and consistent message to its stakeholders on the importance of process safety. This message should express BP’s process safety performance expectations in terms of verifiable objectives and the means by which the company willachieve them, and be reinforced through timely reporting on BP’s progress in meeting its objectives.The company’s strategy for delivering this message should emphasize discussion of BP’s process safety performance expectations withU.S. refinery line managers, supervisors, and staff. These discussions should occur during frequent visits by executive and corporatemanagement to the U.S. refineries, as well as regular and frequent time in the field by refinery leadership team members.(b) “matching that message both with the policies they adopt and the actions they take.”—BP’s Board of Directors, its executivemanagement, including its Group Chief Executive, and other members of corporate management should also demonstrate their commitment toprocess safety through their actions. If senior management evidences its belief in the importance of process safety, consistently communicatesthat belief to other managers and the workforce, and then provides the appropriate resources to promote process safety excellence, sharedbeliefs and practices will follow in the rest of the organization. Decisions about corporate level initiatives, operations, financial performance,resource allocation, capital projects, personnel changes, compensation, and other aspects of the U.S. refining operations must visibly andtangibly demonstrate BP’s commitment to process safety excellence. In particular, BP should make appropriate adjustments to its performancecontract system and other incentive-based compensation plans to better align that system and those plans with the pursuit of process safetyexcellence. In addition, BP should take steps to promote greater continuity of refinery plant managers and other refinery-level managers havingsignificant process safety leadership roles at the U.S. refineries.Panel’s Recommendations C 244