I think about BP nearly every day. The simple reason is that BP’s once-revered reputation is at stake.

The Chemical Safety Board released its results last week: “What BP experienced was a perfect storm where ageing infrastructure, overzealous cost-cutting, inadequate design and risk blindness all converged. The result was the worst workplace catastrophe in more than a decade.” Those are harsh words from the Board’s supervisory head on BP’s Texas City refinery explosion that killed 15 people and wounded 180. The consensus on BP was summed up in The Economist (4th November 2006) — “They were invincible, and now they are ordinary mortals.” BP was untouchable for years until its recent string of events (Texas Refinery fire, Alaskan pipeline corrosion and allegations of propane price fixing) that is rapidly tarnishing their gilded crown.

As a reputation-watcher, I believe BP will eventually navigate through this perfect storm. BP’s decade-long campaign to educate the world about global climate change and the danger of greenhouse gas emissions will keep them from losing maximal (sorry if that is not a word but I like it) reputation. An otherwise strong corporate responsibility record has to be worth something if not the benefit of the doubt. Lets not give up on BP so quickly. I predict that they will learn from this massive failure and get back to business smarter than ever.

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BP, Chemical Safety Board, Texas City Refinery, Alaskan pipeline, propane trading, reputation, tarnished reputation, corporate responsibility, global climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, reputation-watcher, The Economist
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