Refinery safety watchdog for oil giant
Oil major BP today announced the appointment of a watchdog to monitor safety improvements at its five US refineries.
Duane Wilson takes up the post following the recommendation of an independent panel headed by former US secretary of state James Baker after the explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery in March 2005, which killed 15 people.
The move comes just a week after BP’s chief executive of 12 years, Lord Browne, resigned after admitting lying to a court over how he had met Canadian Jeff Chevalier, with whom he had a four-year relationship.
Mr Wilson, who sat on the 11-man Baker Panel, will monitor the company’s progress towards improving safety in its US refining operations.
The Baker Panel, which reported in January, found “material process safety deficiencies” at all five of its US refineries.
Its recommendations included the appointment of an independent safety expert to track the firm’s safety performance and report annually to the BP board for at least five years.
Mr Wilson is a retired vice-president of Texas-based ConocoPhillips, the world’s fifth largest oil refiner.
BP, which is implementing all 10 of the Baker Panel’s recommendations, said: “He has experience and expertise in managing large-scale organisations, as well as expertise in process safety and refining.”
Mr Wilson will report to the chairman of BP’s safety, ethics and environmental assurance committee and produce a public report on the firm’s safety performance.
His appointment also follows another critical report into the Texas City explosion in March by the US Chemical Safety Board, which said that cost-cutting at the refinery in the 1990s and after BP’s merger with Amoco in 1999 “left the refinery vulnerable to a catastrophe”.
The attacks over the company’s safety record have added to the pressure on Lord Browne, who was originally due to step down in August this year.
But he gave way to successor Tony Hayward last week after losing a court battle to prevent the details of his private life and relationship with Mr Chevalier from becoming public.
