BP 2007 Annual Report Download - page 12

Personal safety
Inability to provide safe environments for our workforce and the public
couldleadtoinjuriesorlossoflife.
Environmental
If we do not apply our resources to overcome the perceived trade-off
between global access to energy and the protection or improvement of
the natural environment, we could fail to live up to our aspirations of no
or minimal damage to the environment and contributing to human
progress.
Product quality
Supplying customers with on-specification products is critical to
maintaining our licence to operate and our reputation in the marketplace.
Failure to meet product quality standards throughout the value chain
could lead to harm to people and the environment and loss of customers.
Drilling and production
Exploration and production require high levels of investment and are
subject to natural hazards and other uncertainties, including those relating
to the physical characteristics of an oil or natural gas field. The cost of
drilling, completing or operating wells is often uncertain. We may be
required to curtail, delay or cancel drilling operations because of a variety
of factors, including unexpected drilling conditions, pressure or
irregularities in geological formations, equipment failures or accidents,
adverse weather conditions and compliance with governmental
requirements.
Transportation
All modes of transportation of hydrocarbons contain inherent risks. A
loss of containment of hydrocarbons and other hazardous material could
occur during transportation by road, rail, sea or pipeline. This is a
significant risk due to the potential impact of a release on the
environment and people and given the high volumes involved.
Operations – planning and performance management
Investment efficiency
Our organic growth is dependent on creating a portfolio of quality options
and investing in the best options. Ineffective investment selection could
lead to loss of value and higher capital expenditure.
Major project delivery
Successful execution of our group plan (see page 12) depends critically
on implementing the activities to deliver the major projects over the plan
period. Poor delivery of any major project that underpins production
growth and/or a major programme designed to enhance shareholder
value could adversely affect our financial performance.
Reserves replacement
Successful execution of our group plan depends critically on sustaining
long-term reserves replacement. If upstream resources are not
progressed to proved reserves in a timely and efficient manner, we will
be unable to sustain long-term replacement of reserves.
Operations – enterprise systems, security and continuity
Digital infrastructure
The reliability and security of our digital infrastructure are critical to
maintaining our business applications availability. A breach of our digital
security could cause serious damage to business operations and, in
some circumstances, could result in injury to people, damage to assets,
harm to the environment and breaches of regulations.
Security
Security threats require continual oversight and control. Acts of terrorism
that threaten our plants and offices, pipelines, transportation or computer
systems would severely disrupt business and operations and could cause
harm to people.
Business continuity and disaster recovery
Contingency plans are required to continue or recover operations
following a disruption or incident. Inability to restore or replace critical
capacity to an agreed level within an agreed timeframe would prolong
the impact of any disruption and could severely affect business and
operations.
Crisis management
Crisis management plans and capability are essential to deal with
emergencies at every level of our operations. If we do not respond or are
perceived not to respond in an appropriate manner to either an external
or internal crisis, our business and operations could be severely
disrupted.
Operations – people management
People and capability
Employee training, development and successful recruitment of new
staff are key to implementing our plans. Inability to develop the human
capacity and capability across the organization could jeopardize
performance delivery.
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