The British multinational corporation, under international condemnation for its polluting gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, has been accused of a series of maintenance and operating lapses which put workers and the environment at risk from major leaks, fires and accidents in the North Sea and elsewhere.
As a result HSE has served BP companies with 21 legal enforcement notices since 2006, requiring lax and dangerous practices to be improved. The company, however, has not been prosecuted by the watchdog since 2005.
The revelations have been greeted with horror by experts. The company’s failings in the UK are directly linked to the unfolding disaster in the Gulf of Mexico after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in April, they say.
An analysis of the HSE enforcement database by the Sunday Herald shows that four BP companies – BP Exploration, BP Oil UK, BP Chemicals and BP Shipping – have been hit with legal notices in the last five years. There have been 54 breaches of eight health-and-safety laws or regulations (see table).
The breaches cover three North Sea rigs – Schiehallion, Magnus and Cleeton – the Grangemouth complex near Falkirk, the oil terminal at Sullom Voe in Shetland, and other plants in Hull, Carlisle and elsewhere. According to HSE, some of the lapses were potentially serious.
At Grangemouth in June 2007, HSE served an improvement notice on BP Oil UK “for not taking all measures necessary to prevent major accidents and limit their consequences to persons and the environment”. The company had failed to conduct “a suitable and sufficient assessment of human factors”.
On the Schiehallion rig in December 2006, BP Exploration was told it had “not taken appropriate measures to prevent the uncontrolled release of flammable substances”. A wrap used to block a leakage from a pipeline in 2004 was thought to be deteriorating.
At Schiehallion in December 2006, BP Exploration was said to be risking a fire by storing flammable materials in the wrong places. Also, a leaking hydraulic control panel on the rig had “not been maintained in an efficient state”.
Rory O’Neill, professor of occupational health research at the University of Stirling, was scathing about BP’s record. “BP has almost cornered the market on official health-and-safety reprimands in the US and it is deeply concerning that it is clearly failing to operate safely in the UK too,” he said. “The company’s egregious failings on safety can be traced, oily footprint by oily footprint, to decisions made and policies enforced by its London-based board. Those boardroom failings apply equally to its approach in the UK as they do in the US.”
Professor O’Neill, who has been monitoring BP for more than a decade, also attacked the HSE for failing to take a tough enough approach. “HSE turned a blind eye to the cost-cutting, throat-cutting behaviour of a multinational operating on its patch,” he said.
“HSE should have had its foot on the throat of BP. Instead BP has wrapped the increasingly toothless and resource-starved watchdog round its finger.”
But HSE defended its record, saying that the regulatory action it took was “proportionate to the level of risk”. A spokeswoman said: “Where we find breaches of the law or a failure to meet safety standards, we will take enforcement action to prevent harm to workers and members of the public.”
BP argued that its safety performance in the North Sea was good and improving. A spokesman said: “Given the scale and nature of the business we believe we have received a relatively small number of improvement notices from the HSE over the years. Each of these is dealt with professionally, on a case-by-case basis.”
The company’s safety record compared well to that of others, the spokesman continued. “We are never complacent and are continually looking at ways to reduce even the smallest of leaks.”
But Juliet Swann of Friends of the Earth Scotland said: “Companies like BP have for years been taking shortcuts with safety that risk human life, the environment and people’s pensions.”
