and the third time is enemy action.
So writes Ian Fleming in Goldfinger.
From ABC News - OSHA statistics show BP ran up 760 "egregious, willful" safety violations, while Sunoco and Conoco-Phillips each had eight, Citgo had two and Exxon had one comparable citation.
Link: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.co...
So Mr. Hayward and the rest of BP management - what should we call 760 egregious willful safety violations, as compared with Exxon Mobil which had just one?
I wonder what Ian Fleming would consider 760 instances. Certainly something beyond enemy action.
More after the fold
What's an egregious willful violation?
OSHA defines a willful violation as one "committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health." An egregious willful violation is considered so severe that it can result in a penalty each time a violation occurs, rather than a single penalty for all violations of a regulation. A serious violation is described as one creating a "substantial probability" of death or serious injury. OSHA can refer cases involving worker deaths and wanton disregard for safety rules to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution.
Link: http://www.publicintegrity.org/...
OSHA regulations at link: http://www.osha.gov/...
This is behavior well beyond enemy action.
-----
From a Times UK article by Tom Bower dated 9 May 20109
Tony Hayward's predecessor at BP was Lord Browne, who resigned in disgrace amid scandal. Mr. Hayward inherited most of the problems at BP from Lord Browne.
EVEN before taking over BP from Lord Browne, Tony Hayward admitted to a group of employees in America in 2006 that the group needed to restore the company’s core skills in engineering to reverse his predecessor’s drastic cuts.
Hayward knew that Browne’s legacy had made the company vulnerable to costly disasters. Four successive accidents in America in 2005 and 2006 had shredded BP’s reputation and, without insurance cover, had cost the company billions of pounds in repairs, compensation and lost revenue.
The explosion at the Texas City refinery that killed 15 people, the dangerous list of the $1 billion Thunder Horse oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, and two oil spills from pipelines in Alaska had aroused outrage across America. In Hayward’s opinion, Browne’s strategy had been short-sighted.
"We have a management style that has made a virtue of doing more for less," said Hayward. To increase BP’s profitability and share price, Browne had encouraged the departure of hundreds of BP’s skilled engineers. To save money, Browne believed BP should use subcontractors to drill for oil, maintain refineries, monitor corrosion in pipelines and supervise the construction of oil platforms. Investigations of the accidents blamed cost savings and the inadequate skills of BP’s own personnel for poor supervision of the subcontractors.
Link to entire article - http://business.timesonline.co.uk/...
Note that the article states that the losses were "without insurance cover." Either BP was going naked or they couldn't obtain coverage because the insurers and reinsurers were aware of their business practices.
Many feel Tony Hayward is to blame. I'm not sure that's necessarily correct. He seems more like Obama, having inherited all of the problems Bush created.
From the same Times online article
On becoming chief executive in 2007, Hayward knew that Browne’s cuts had denuded BP of the skills to prevent similar incidents. His model for near-perfection was Exxon Mobil’s practices.
Every oil man acknowledges that Exxon Mobil’s method of operations is the industry’s gold standard. Since the Exxon Valdez tanker polluted Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989, the group’s executives had imposed demanding requirements.
Around the clock, its engineers on the oil rigs second-guess everything planned and done by every subcontractor. BP lacks the staff to replicate such rigour.
Despite acknowledging the criticisms of "systemic lapses" for its sins in 2005, Hayward’s recruitment of engineers has been too slow to remedy his inheritance from Browne.
I have heard virtually nothing on the US based MSM about Lord Browne or his role in this mess. Moreover, I am somewhat astonished to hear that Exxon Mobil is the industry gold standard of safety. I guess heavy fines do have an effect.
It would seem to me that BP was not an accident but rather a disaster waiting to happen. The accidents had already occurred, and they received slaps on the wrist which were written off as costs of doing business by management.
-----
The culture of an organization is set by top management, and flows downhill. BP culture as it exists today was set by Browne. Hayward is turning it about, but it's like turning a battleship - it's cannot be fixed overnight. I think Mr. Obama faces a similar situation, where Bush and Cheney dismantled the regulatory apparatus.
The 760 actions cited by OSHA were classified WILLFULL EGREGIOUS. One wonders how many more they got away with because they went unnoticed.
BP has hidden, obfuscated and misrepresented what has happened and is happening in the Gulf. That behavior is consistent with all their prior behavior.
-----
So what should we call an organization with 760 egregious willful safety violations, as compared with Exxon Mobil which had just one? Ian Fleming would conclude this was enemy action.
We have reached the point where BP has become an organization not unlike a terrorist organization, seeking to further their own goals without regard to costs to others including the deaths of american citizens and destruction of the Gulf. They have done as much if not more damage than al quaeda.
When does the cumulative behavior of BP warrant their inclusion on the list of terrorist organizations seeking to destroy America? They're little different from a terrorist organization. They're dangerous to our citizens and our country.
When does the cumulative behavior of BP warrant the seizure of their assets?
When does the cumulative behavior of BP warrant expulsion from our shores?
-----
More articles for background on the reputation of BP
http://www.nytimes.com/...
http://www.propublica.org/...
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.co...
http://news.feedfury.com/...
http://www.publicintegrity.org/...
http://www.npr.org/...
http://abcnews.go.com/...
http://publiccitizenenergy.org/...
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/...
http://www.independent.co.uk/...
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/...
http://www.truthout.org/...