How we operate

Within BP, our operating businesses are accountable for delivering safe, reliable and compliant operations. They have the responsibility to identify and manage risks and bring together people with the right skills and competencies.

It is an explicit requirement of our OMS that sites carry out self verification for health, safety, security and environment checks. They work in collaboration with deployed safety specialists and are subject to independent scrutiny and assurance.

Our ability to be a safe and responsible operator depends in part on the capability and performance of our contractors, suppliers and partners. We address this in a variety of ways including training and requiring adherence to operational standards in legally binding agreements.

We seek to identify and manage risks in the supply chain relating to safety, corruption and money laundering, and aim to have sustainability-related provisions in our contracts with suppliers and contractors.

Working locally

We continue to take steps towards the systematic management of our environmental impacts.

We have long taken a systematic approach to the management of environmental issues in Georgia, not least because of the commitments we made under the environmental and social action plan which was developed during pipeline construction and necessitated a rigorous approach to action tracking and closure. The management system is based on the ISO 14001 ‘plan-do-check-act’ cycle, which is also fully incorporated into the OMS improvement cycle.

The effectiveness of our environmental performance is also regularly reviewed by other audits such as the annual reviews by the independent environmental consultant appointed on behalf of the original project lenders.  

Responsibility for implementing and maintaining the environmental management system (EMS) rests with the leadership team. The Georgia compliance and environment team is responsible for EMS co-ordination and maintenance, while the regulatory compliance and environment director oversees the system across the BP regional business. At site level, site managers are responsible for its maintenance.