NU Online News Service Sept. 29, 3:39 p.m. EDT

In response to the Gulf Coast oil spill disaster in which 11people were killed, British Petroleum said it is forming a safetyand risk unit that will report directly to the company's incomingchief executive officer.

BP said today that the Safety & Operational Risk functionwill have authority to intervene in all aspects of BP's technicalactivities. It also will have its own expert staff embedded in BP'soperating units, including exploration projects and refineries, thecompany said.

BP noted that the "powerful new organization" is designed tostrengthen safety and risk management across the BP group. It willbe headed by Mark Bly and report directly to incoming ChiefExecutive Bob Dudley.

This summer, a group of global investors called for tighter risk control measures, asking energycompanies for their oil spill prevention measures. They alsoqueried insurers, suggesting a more active loss control role inresponse to the BP disaster, according to CERES, a network ofinvestors and environmental groups.

Andrew Logan, director of oil and gas industry programs forCERES in Boston told NU Online News Service today thatBP's announcement may say more about BP than it does about theindustry.

"The fact that they are essentially creating almost ananny-state throughout the company to oversee safety, says a lotabout how broken the safety culture is at BP," Mr. Logan said."Ideally safety is something that is part of everyone'sresponsibility and is integrated into everyone's work, and I thinkwhat BP has acknowledged is they have not been able to achievethat. Instead they have to have these safety folks embeddedthroughout the organization."

In a message to BP staff worldwide, Mr. Dudley said, "Ourresponse to the incident needs to go beyond deepwater drilling.There are lessons for us relating to the way we operate, the way weorganize our company and the way we manage risk."

He added, "As I take up my new role I am aware of two things.First, there is a pressing need to rebuild trust in BP around theworld. Second, BP's people have both the commitment and thecapability to rebuild that trust."