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In 2004, the BP Texas City Refinery experienced a major explosion along with three fatalities. As a result the plant manager, Don Parus, commissioned a study into the safety culture of the plant, known as the Telos Report. The authors of the report personally interviewed more than 100 employees, including management. Additionally, they received written surveys from over 1100 workers. The results they found are shocking to anyone outside of the company, but not to those who worked for BP.
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2005 - Telos Report
In 2004, the BP Texas City Refinery experienced a major explosion along with three fatalities. As a result the plant manager, Don Parus, commissioned a study into the safety culture of the plant, known as the Telos Report. The authors of the report personally interviewed more than 100 employees, including management. Additionally, they received written surveys from over 1100 workers. The results they found are shocking to anyone outside of the company, but not to those who worked for BP.
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Don Parus - Plant Manager
Telos Report: "Shocking Reports Not Really Shocking" WATCH VIDEO 1/21/2005 - Telos, Report of Findings DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT Email from Tommy Lambright to Don Parus Tommy Lambright – Site Labor Specialist Don Parus – Texas City BUL in 2005 ***Key BP Term (BUL): At BP, Plant Managers and Unit Managers are often referred to as Business Unit Leaders or BUL’s. VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT |
2001- Early Warnings
The results of the Telos Report were not shocking to BP Management because they received their first warnings about future fatalities and major events at least as far back as 2001.
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Bill Ralph – Head of Process Safety at BP Texas City
Safety Challenge: “The First of Many Predictions” WATCH VIDEO 2/1//2002 - TEXAS CITY REFINERY SAFETY CHALLENGE VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT 2/1//2002 - BPSH Annual 2001 HSE Assurance Report/ Revision *** A few years ago BP attempeted to unify all of the sites in the Houston area under one management team. They called this collection of units BP South Houston, but this project was eventually cancelled. VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT |
2002 Veba Report
Then, in 2002 BP commissioned a report called the Good Practice Sharing Assessment, which is commonly referred to as the Veba Report. For the first time, BP management outside of Texas City saw the dangerous state of the infrastructure at the plant. As a result, they commissioned a follow up study to find out “how has South Houston gotten into such a poor state.” This second report shows just how destructive the cost cutting at Texas City had been.
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Don Parus - Plant Manager
Veba Report: " Veba says Potential for Major Incident" WATCH VIDEO 8/1/2002 - BP Good Practice Sharing Assessment VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT 8/19/2002 - Email from James Hay David Pierpoline – Currently the Director of HSSE Compliance for the Western Hemisphere *** Key BP Term (HSSE): At BP, HSSE stands for Health, Safety, Security, and Environment. Formerly, the term was simply HSE, but in recent years BP added Security to the list of Safety Manager responsibilities. James Hay – Business Unit Leader for Chemicals (London) Mike Hoffman – Group Vice President for Refining (London) VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT 10/16/2002 -Texas City Refinery Retrospective Analysis VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT |
2002- 2004 More Warnings
After the Veba Report, came a string of warnings demonstrating the dangers at the plant. The plant had dozens of fires every year, and report after report warned that the plant’s infrastructure was in a very unsafe condition. In 2003, a manager at the ISOM unit voiced concerned about the entire site not being in compliance with OSHA’s Process Safety regulations. The hourly employees repeatedly voiced their concerns in numerous surveys, and each injury free day was another day their luck held up.
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John McLemore - Fire Chief at BP Texas
"A Fire a Week For Ten Years" WATCH VIDEO 9/22/2003 - BP Audit Report No: 2003 VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT 9/29/2003 - Email from David Breedlove Compliance and Ethics Certification 2004- Leaders Certificate Ray Hawkins – Superintendent for the ARU, ISOM, AU2, and NDU David Breedlove – PSM coordinator for ISOM, AU2 and NDU VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT 3/1/2004 - WP/Aromatics March 2004 ESI Survey VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT 4/9/2004 - E-mail from Richard Peltier to GTCC Aromatics Leadership Team VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT 4/15/2004 - Feedback People Assurance Survey VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT |
2004 - 2005 Telos Report (Revisited)
Before the Telos Report came out, the authors offered a frightening initial impression to BP Management—that many people in the plant feared for their lives. Furthermore, the Executive Summary to the Telos Report clearly shows that this fear of death stemmed from the strong possibility of a major catastrophic incident.
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Geoffrey Gioja - Co-Author of the Telos Report
"Never Saw so Many People Ready to Die" WATCH VIDEO 12/13/04 - Telos Texas City Site Integrity and Safety Leadership Update to Leadership Team VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT 1/21/2005 - Telos, Report of Findings DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT 1/21/2005 - Telos Executive Summary VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT |
BP Management Outside of Texas City Knew
The knowledge of the Veba Report and the Telos report, both of which show the dangerous condition of the plant’s infrastructure, were shared with BP management in both London and Chicago. Even Lord John Browne himself looked at the monthly report for Texas City, including their Health & Safety records, separate and apart from the other 17 BP refineries worldwide.
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Don Parus - Plant Manager
Telos Report: "Higher Powers Were Absolutely Aware" Mike Hoffman – Group Vice President for Refining (London) Pat Gower – Regional Vice President for Refining in the U.S. (Chicago) WATCH VIDEO Refining & Pipelines SPU Texas City Refinery Review: Billateral with John Manzoni John Manzoni – Global Refining Group Vice President (London) VIEW HIGHLIGHTS Mike Hoffman - Global Vice President of BP Refining (London) "I saw the Telos Study" WATCH VIDEO 2/25/2003 - Email from Jack Berry to GTCC Aromatics Team RE: SAFETY PERFORMANCE ALERT! Lord John Browne of Madingley – Group Chief Executive (London) VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT |
Early 2005 - Final Warnings
Even after the Telos Report came out, management at Texas City continued to receive forecasts of impending doom. In fact, just eight days before the March 2003 explosion the Health & Safety plan for Texas City predicted the death of an employee in the next year.
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2/20/2005 - E-Mail from Johnny Cearley Re: Lunch review of AARs
Joe Barnes –HSSE MDL at BP Texas City *** Key BP Term (MDL): At BP, members of upper management, who report directly to the BUL, are referred to as Manufacturing Delivery Leaders or MDL's. Johnny Cearley – MDL on Special Assignment at Texas City Norine Stein – MDL over the Aromatics Unit at Texas City VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT 2/27/2005 - Email to Robert McEuen from Joe Barnes Re: RE Safety Joe Barnes – Head of HSSE at BP Texas City VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT 3/23/2005 - West Plant ESI Survey VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT |
ISOM Explosion
For years, BP management was warned about the high risk of a major catastrophe. Every report, survey, or review they did found the same results. Unfortunately, on March 23, 2005, those many predictions came true.
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Don Parus - Plant Manager
Telos Report: "Veba to Telos: a Timeline of Warnings" WATCH VIDEO 6/30/2004 - E-Mail from Joel Robbins Control of Work Audit Resonse, Control of Work Audit Response Joel Robbins – Former HSE Manager at BP Texas City VIEW HIGHLIGHTS - DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT Don Parus - Plant Manager Veba Report: Veba Predictions Come True WATCH NOW |