The Baker Panel Report - ABSA

esponsibilities include building BP’s technology base (essentially research and development efforts), developing BP’s “technology leadershipareas” (such as alternative fuels), overseeing BP’s major projects, and enhancing BP’s engineering capabilities.Meggs told the Panel that prior to the creation of the Safety and Operations function, process safety fell under Group Technology. However,Meggs said that he understands now that both he and Mogford have responsibility for process safety: Meggs, because he heads GroupTechnology, which is responsible for writing the various standards, and Mogford, because he heads Safety and Operations, which is responsiblefor ensuring the implementation of those standards.The Group Technology function was responsible for the promulgation of the integrity management standard, which Browne approved in March2006 and which BP regards as encompassing process safety. All business units, including the U.S. refineries, must be fully compliant with thisstandard by the end of 2008. Any site that is not completely compliant at that time must obtain an exemption from the Executive Officer,Strategic Resources (who reports to Browne) or be shut down.In 2003, BP recognized that while it was making substantial progress on personal safety, it was not experiencing comparable success withlosses of containment, and thus, the company’s engineering capability needed to be built up. BP then created a new position, GroupEngineering Director, and recruited John Baxter from outside BP for this position. Baxter and his 12-member staff are responsible for ensuringconsistency in standards across the company and for reviewing major risks to BP.The Group Technology engineering staff developed hundreds of ETPs, and more than 460 of them apply to BP’s refining operations. The processof developing these ETPs took five years, and Group Technology worked with experts from throughout BP to develop consistent, coherentpractices based on international standards, best practices from BP’s legacy companies, and other sources. While Group Technology continuesto promulgate ETPs, some of which are unique to the refining business, BP has identified 62 of them as being “safety critical.”The ETP requirements are divided between “musts, shalls, and shoulds.” These three terms relate to the sense of urgency for the ETPs andwhich level of BP’s organization is authorized to issue an exception. For example, an ETP that is considered a “must” is a high-priority issue,and only the most senior engineering leadership can grant a refinery an exception for its failure to implement this practice. An ETP classified asa “shall” is slightly less critical, and a refinery can seek an exception to such a practice from the refining engineering authority. The ETPs of thelowest priority are classified as “shoulds.” Although a refinery should implement these practices, it can seek an exception from its refineryengineering authority. Each refinery must comply with the most critical ETPs by 2008 and with all others by 2011.BP’s Head of Major Hazards and Fire reports to the Group Engineering Director and heads BP’s Major Accident Risk assessment project. Thisproject is one of BP’s techniques to identify major risks in any of its businesses that might not otherwise be revealed. The Major Accident Riskassessment project is designed to assess on a consistent basis and bring to the attention of BP senior management those risks that are solarge that they present a risk to BP’s corporate existence.> HSSE and technologyAs a result of the Texas City accident, in July 2005 BP created a new HSSE and Technology organization for the Refining and Marketing segment.The head of that organization has been C. J. Warner, who is Group Vice-President, HSSE and Technology, Refining and Marketing. As a GroupVice-President, Warner is on the same level as the Group Vice-President, Refining (Hoffman), and she reports to the Chief Executive, Refiningand Marketing (Manzoni). She has a degree in chemical engineering, and her career has largely been in refining. Warner is based in London.Overview of BP’s Organizational Structure and Its Five U.S. Refineries C 38