Sustainability

Safety

Our first priority is to keep a relentless focus on safety. Good management of risk serves to protect the people at the front line, the places in which we operate and the value we create.

Safety

We understand that operating in politically-complex regions and technically-demanding geographies, such as deepwater and oil sands, requires particular sensitivity to local environments.

There are three key principles within our approach to safety and risk management. The first is leadership fostering a culture where everyone is focused on safe, reliable operations. The second is our operating management system, which is the way BP operates. And the third is independent, effective checks and balances at all levels of the organization.

Our dedicated and independent safety and operational risk function, which we established in 2011, supports the business line in delivering safe, reliable and compliant operations across the group's operated businesses.

A culture of safety

Examining a rig in the North Sea, Byford Dolphin, UK

Since the beginning of 2011, all BP-operated drilling and wells activity has been conducted through a single global wells organization. We are working to standardize BP drilling and wells operations with the intent of delivering safe and compliant wells.

We have also centralized oversight of our major projects, under our new global projects organization. It has changed the way all our major projects are delivered, allowing a standard approach to contract procurement, risk management, inspection and review.

Safer drilling

Drilling on the Serrette field offshore platform, Trinidad

Value

We are working to become a simpler business, with a clear focus on what we do best. Our distinctive capabilities include exploration, deepwater, giant fields, natural gas, downstream, technologies and relationships.

Value

Strong financial performance is vital, because it enables us to make the investments necessary to produce the energy society requires. By supplying oil and gas we support economic development and help to improve quality of life for millions of people.

Along with tax revenues and direct employment, buying goods and services from local companies in this way is a key benefit that our business can bring to local economies.

At our Kuantan facility in Malaysia, for example, we source around 90% of goods, services and human resources locally. We also provide assistance to national suppliers to help them meet BP standards and requirements. At our Kuantan facility, we have worked with five contractors who provide civil, environmental and mechanical engineering services, to help them attain the required standards to be a BP supplier.

Supporting local economic development Social investment

Taking routine field readings at our Kuantan facility in Malaysia

We significantly expanded our biofuels business in 2011, acquiring majority ownership in biofuel company Tropical BioEnergia S.A. and ethanol producer Companhia Nacional de Açúcar e Álcool (CNAA). The growth of this business in Brazil is part of our global strategy to develop the technologies, feedstocks and processes required to produce sustainable biofuels to meet the growing demand for low carbon liquid fuels.

Our analysis shows that over the next 20 years or so biofuels could make up as much as 23% of global incremental demand for transport fuels.

Biofuels

Tropical BioEnergia biofuels joint venture, Brazil

Trust

We can only operate if we have the trust of people inside and outside the company. We must earn people’s trust by being fair and responsible in everything we do.

Trust

We believe good communication and open dialogue are vital if we are to meet the expectations of our employees, customers, shareholders and the local communities in which we operate.

The economic and environmental restoration of the Gulf Coast is part of our ongoing commitment to the region following the oil spill in 2010. We have been working closely with local communities and government agencies on a wide variety of restoration efforts.

More than 150 studies have been initiated to assess the potential impacts from the spill on wildlife and other natural resources. To help boost the economy, we have promoted local tourism and seafood – two vital industries in the region – and supported local education, training and community development programmes, among other activities.

Restoring the environment Restoring the economy

A family fishing in the Gulf of Mexico

More than 83,000 people work for BP. What these individuals do differs according to their roles – as engineers, refining personnel, shipping crews and many others – but we want to make sure that how we go about our work is the same for everyone.

Our values are safety, respect, excellence, courage and one team. We are integrating these qualities into our performance management, recognition, training and recruitment processes. These five values are also explicitly linked to our code of conduct. In 2011 our businesses reported 529 dismissals for code non-compliance and we terminated or did not renew 14 suppliers' contracts due to ethical breaches.

Our people

Hull research and technology centre, UK