BP to create new safety division after US Gulf oil spill disaster

29 September 2010 12:40  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--BP will create a new division to strengthen safety and risk management across the group, following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the energy major said on Wednesday.

The Safety & Operational Risk function, brought in by the incoming chief executive Bob Dudley, would have sweeping powers to oversee and audit BP's global operations and intervene in all aspects of its technical activities, it added.

The new organisation was one of a number of changes announced by Dudley as he prepared to take over his new role on 1 October.

Tony Hayward stepped down as CEO following BP's investigation into the Macondo well incident in April which led to the explosion and fire that killed 11 people and caused widespread pollution.

"These are the first and most urgent steps in a programme I am putting in place to rebuild trust in BP,” Dudley said.

"The changes are in areas where I believe we most clearly need to act, with safety and risk management our most urgent priority," he added.

 "Our response to the incident needs to go beyond deepwater drilling. There are lessons for us relating to the way we operate, the way we organise our company and the way we manage risk," he said.

Dudley also said that BP was to re-structure its upstream segment from a single business into three separate functional divisions; exploration, development and production, which would carry out a detailed review of how the group managed third-party contractors in order to reinforce accountability for risk management.

As a result of the restructring, Andy Inglis, head of the BP’s upstream business would relinquish his current role as well as step down as a main board director on 31 October 31 and leave the company at the end of the year, BP said.

($1 = €0.74)

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By: Franco Capaldo
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