BP's Browne admits errors, denies bad faith
Source: Reuters
By Bruce Nichols HOUSTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - BP <BP.L> Chief Executive John Browne on Tuesday deflected questions about how his legacy would be affected by a panel's report criticizing the oil major's safety practices, but he admitted mistakes and a sense of failure. "I can look back and say, of course, there were things I would do differently," he said from London by videoconference link to reporters gathered in Houston. "I think I have a deep and moral responsibility for this company, and I always feel that when anything goes wrong, that I have let the staff down," Browne said. He made his comments after release of a report by the BP U.S. Refineries Independent Safety Review Panel led by former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker. The panel found a lack of focus on manufacturing process safety contributed to the March 2005 Texas City, Texas, refinery explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 170 others. But it also found that the errors were made in good faith, Browne said, blaming an imbalance in the emphasis on personal safety and the environment at the expense of process safety. BP never ignored process safety and no executive ever blocked an expenditure identified as important to safety, he said. "We've never focused on profits above safety," Browne said. But the report "has called upon us to show the passion for process safety which BP has shown for many years for personal safety and the environment," he said. Browne said some of BP's problems were due to rapid growth, including a series of corporate mergers, and turnover in management. But he pledged to fix them. "BP gets it, and I get it, too," he said. "This has happened on my watch, and as chief executive I have the responsibility to learn from what has happened." BP has been beset by several other problems at its U.S. operations since 2005, including oil spills in Alaska and accusations of market manipulation. Browne said the problems were separate and denied they reflected an unhealthy corporate culture. He argued that BP's submitting to such a detailed review shows a positive rather than a negative corporate culture. "It shows BP's strength of character," Browne said. He denied that the release of the report had anything to do with his accelerating his departure as CEO by 17 months, from 2008 to this summer, a speed-up announced in recent weeks. He will be succeeded by Tony Hayward, BP's current head of exploration and production, who did not attend the hour-long news conference because of a prior engagement, Browne said. Browne declined to assess his legacy but defended parts of his career that involved transforming BP from a national oil company into a world leader in the industry. "There'll be times and places to examine legacies. That is not for me to say," he said. "What I would say is that BP is a very different company... We've grown very significantly."
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