Welch grills Tony Hayward about BP safety record

is it true that in 2005 the Texas City operation owned by BP blew up resulting in the loss of lives of 15 workers that is true and is it true that in 2006 a BP oil pipeline in Alaska ruptured and spilled two hundred thousand gallons of crude oil that is true and is it true that in 2007 when you took over as CEO of BP the corporation settled a series of criminal not civil criminal charges and agreed to pay 370 million dollars in fines that is correct and is it also true that in one year the Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA found more than 700 violations at bp's Texas City refinery and fined BP what was then a record fine of eighty-seven point four million dollars is that true that's correct it is it true that earlier this year a BP refinery in Toledo Ohio was fined three million dollars for willful and I emphasized the term and the finding willful safety violations including the use of valve similar to those that contributed to the Texas City Blast that is correct it is it true as well that the u.s. Chemical Safety Board which did investigation into the Texas City refinery was headed with the active participation of former Secretary of State James Baker you're familiar with that report I'm very familiar with that report and in that report would you I take it we regard as credible I believe it's very credible and it's been the basis on which we move forward in 2007 in that report and I quote found that BP management allowed operators and supervisors to alter to edit to add and to remove procedural steps at the Texas City refinery without assessing risk and the Baker panel examined all of BP's US refineries and found a toleration of CBS Pasillas deviations from safe operating practices is that an accurate statement of the findings of mr. Baker's report it is an accurate findings and based on the findings of that report and they're the instances of 2005 and 2006 in Anarchy implemented a systematic change in how we manage safety and a systemic change in the culture of BP I mean it's something we have done consistently over the last three years well did that systemic change that you say you implemented as a result of the Baker report account for the reason that a Deepwater Horizon when faced with the choice of a cheaper and quicker casing design or a safer design BP chose the cheaper in quicker casing design did you do that on the basis of the recommendations of the Baker report as I've said we need to wait for the results of the investigation to conclude if there is any evidence whatsoever the people put costs ahead of safety in this incident what their reason was but I'm gonna ask you in fact it's not in dispute that the choice was made to use a cheaper and quicker casing designed rather than a more expensive design and I will ask you again there were fewer casing centralizers than some folks were recommending is that a leave out motivation but there was a choice of more casing centralizers or fewer casing centralizers more cost more fewer cost less which choice did BP make of Deepwater Horizon the decision taken by the engineering team at the time which was a technical judgment was to use fewer centralizers rather than more it is not always true that more is better and BP chose the Deepwater Horizon not to circulate drilling mud that would have cleaned out the well it chose a lighter saltwater base for the cementing procedure is that correct the procedure to displace the mud was a procedure that is not uncommon in the industry it was a procedure that was approved by the MMS prior to implementing it are you saying you made the right choice in this case I'm not able to make a judgment as to whether the right choices were made well you're the CEO but I'm not with respect congressman a drilling engineer or a technically qualified engineer in these matters but you're in charge of them the that doesn't mean to say I'm an expert well I mean you know one of the frustrations that I think folks have is who is in charge and there was a baker report that said that there was a systematic choice being made consistently by BP that led to the loss of life that led to pollution that could be attributed to a decision based on saving money increasing profits at the expense of safety and as it turns out unfortunately human lives you know I'm going to get back to what I asked you earlier there is a I think all of us live in a world where we'd prefer to have fewer regulations rather than more we'd like to rely on trust in faith and our word rather than regulations and checking over your shoulder and all those things that I think both sides find annoying but I'm going to ask you the question does a CEO who has presided over a company that's incurred 370 million dollars in fines whose company was subject to this report by mr. Baker indicating a choice for first safety the choice at the expense of safety does that person who's presiding over over almost a hundred billion dollars in loss of shareholder value in the suspension of a ten billion dollar annual dividend who's lost the confidence of shareholders and regulators and most importantly the families instead since of the golf does that person enjoy the confidence necessary to continue acting a CEO or is it time for that CEO to resign I'm focused on the response I'm focused on trying to eliminate the leak trying to contain the oil on the surface and defender beaches and to clean up the spill and to restore the lives of the people on the Gulf Coast guilt what I intend to do yeah yield back

Channel: Senator Peter Welch

Views: 26,126

Keywords: hearings, BP, Peter Welch, Tony Hayward, BP CEO, Deepwater horizon, gulf coast, oil spill, congress

Id: bRguqII2ri8

Length: 7min 8sec (428 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 17 2010