Monday Accident & Lessons Learned: BP CEO Never Read the CSB Root Cause Analysis Report on the Texas City Explosion

I spent an interesting afternoon reading information about the aftermatch of the BP Texas City Explosion. One interesting document was the deposition of ex–CEO of BP, Lord John Browne.

In the deposition, he was asked:

“…did you read the CSB report?”

And he answered:

“I think I — the CSB report was described to me in a meeting.
It was very, very long, I believe.”

And this is the same man who made this statement:

“I get it, and BP gets it. We have learned, and we need to improve.”

He says he has a responsibility to learn from the death of 15 people, but he doesn’t even read the Chemical Safety Board report.

So, what can an investigator learn from this statement?

It is important to document what you learn, but a 500-page report won’t be read by those who need it most … senior management.