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Financial Times: Baker report on BP published

Published: January 16 2007 12:14 | Last updated: January 16 2007 15:23

The Baker report into BP’s safety standards in the US is now out. BP says it will implement the report’s recommendations. The report runs to 374 pages, so we’re still going through it. Here are some highlights so far:

“The Panel believes that BP has not provided effective process safety leadership and has not adequately established process safety as a core value across all its five U.S. refineries. While BP has an aspirational goal of “no accidents, no harm to people,” BP has not provided effective leadership in making certain its management and U.S. refining workforce understand what is expected of them regarding process safety performance.”

“BP has not always ensured that it identified and provided the resources required for strong process safety performance at its U.S. refineries.”

“The Panel also found that BP did not effectively incorporate process safety into management decision-making.”

“Neither BP’s executive management nor its refining line management has ensured the implementation of an integrated, comprehensive, and effective process safety management system.”

It is not clear yet whether other executives will follow Lord Browne out the door. So far, the bloggers have been fairly quiet about Browne’s departure.

“It was […] under his leadership that BP pioneered the ‘open innovation’ model of technology development, funding massive amounts of research at university R&D centers instead of in internal R&D centers,” writes Neal Dikeman on cleantechblog.com. “And for the cleantech world, it was under Browne’s leadership that BP virtually defined its technology strategy in terms of a ‘low-carbon’ future.”

“The question surrounding Browne is whether he will be able to recover his tarnished reputation now that his legacy is under scrutiny and damaged,” says, not very controversially, Leslie Gaines-Ross at reputationxchange.blogspot.com.

And, rather more surprisingly, Jon C. Ogg at 247wallst.com, says: “Of course traders and M&A rumor mongers are taking the opportunity to say this could imply a merger between BP and perhaps Royal Dutch Shell.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

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