The Intelligencer called for an investigation of the Safety Culture at BP. The article said:

“But did anyone in the government address the concern about “process safety” at refineries or other facilities – such as drilling rigs?“

Then an article in the New York Times said:

“BP continues to lag other oil companies when it comes to safety, according to federal officials and industry analysts.“

The article also says:

“But BP, the nation’s biggest oil and gas producer, has a worse health, environment and safety record than many other major oil companies, according to Yulia Reuter, the head of the energy research team at RiskMetrics, a consulting group that assigns scores to companies based on their performance in various categories, including safety.“

“The industry standard for safety, analysts say, is set by ExxonMobil, which displays an obsessive attention to detail, monitors the smallest spill and imposes scripted procedures on managers.“

These stories are asking questions similar to those in a discussion at the TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis Users and Friends site on LinkedIn. If you are a member, you can see the discussion at:

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=2164007&discussionID=19989745&goback=%2Eanh_2164007