The impact of the BP baker report

IntroductionThis study examined the impact of the British Petroleum (BP) Baker Panel Report, reviewing the March 2005 BP-Texas City explosion, on the field of process safety.MethodThree hundred eighty-four subscribers of a process safety listserv responded to a survey two years after the BP Baker Report was published.ResultsResults revealed respondents in the field of process safety are familiar with the BP Baker Report, feel it is important to the future safety of chemical processing, and believe that the findings are generalizable to other plants beyond BP-Texas City. Respondents indicated that few organizations have administered the publicly available BP Process Safety Culture Survey. Our results also showed that perceptions of contractors varied depending on whether respondents were part of processing organizations (internal perspective) or government or consulting agencies (external perspective).ConclusionsThis research provides some insight into the beliefs of chemical processing personnel regarding the transportability and generalizability of lessons learned from one organization to another.Impact on IndustryThis study has implications for both organizational scientists and engineers in that it reveals perceptions about the primary mechanism used to share lessons learned within one industry about one major catastrophe (i.e., investigation reports). This study provides preliminary information about the perceived impact of a report such as this one.

Research highlights
► Respondents that are chemical process safety personnel are familiar with the BP Baker Report.
► They feel it is important to future safety in the chemical processing industry.
► They believe that the findings in the Report are generalizable to other plants.
► Few organizations have administered the BP Process Safety Culture Survey.
► Perceptions of contractors vary by respondent roles (internal versus external).