Going beyond petroleum proved to be a fatal error

BP was to go “beyond petroleum”.

The slogan is the butt of many jokes, but at its heart was a desperate bid to make BP lovable to consumers that mostly hated oil companies. BP spent $100 million in a year promoting the idea that the company had somehow left behind the dirty, smelly business of turning crude into kerosene. Environmentalists had told the world that companies such as BP were destroying the planet. Unwilling, unable or just tired of arguing its corner, BP chose instead to leave the room. Left behind was a clutter of ageing fuel factories that were rusting (HSSE) business plan, published on March 15, 2005 — eight days before the disaster — gave warning that the refinery would “kill someone in the next 12-18 months”.
Why did Britain’s biggest industrial enterprise treat a core business unit with such indifference, dare one say contempt? Did they open the door too wide to antiindustrial green zealots or was it the constant harping of City and media scribblers that cash invested is cash wasted?

The CSB report is a sad end to the Browne era. It will have done some good if it reasserts the importance of massive and dangerous industrial processes in keeping us lit, warm and comfortable.

Some people seem to think that the world can be powered by windmills and controlled by clicking a mouse.

The Times