BP (BP)

home. Competition puts pressure on product prices, affects oil products marketing and requires continuous management focus on reducing unit costs and improving efficiency. The implementation of group strategy requires continued technological advances and innovation including advances in exploration, production, refining, petrochemical manufacturing technology and advances in technology related to energy usage. Our performance could be impeded if competitors developed or acquired intellectual property rights to technology that we required or if our innovation lagged the industry.

Compliance and ethics risks
Regulatory
The oil industry is subject to regulation and intervention by governments throughout the world in such matters as the award of exploration and production interests, the imposition of specific drilling obligations, environmental protection controls, controls over the development and decommissioning of a field (including restrictions on production) and, possibly, nationalization, expropriation, cancellation or non-renewal of contract rights. We buy, sell and trade oil and gas products in certain regulated commodity markets. The oil industry is also subject to the payment of royalties and taxation, which tend to be high compared with those payable in respect of other commercial activities, and operates in certain tax jurisdictions that have a degree of uncertainty relating to the interpretation of, and changes to, tax law. As a result of new laws and regulations or other factors, we could be required to curtail or cease certain operations, or we could incur additional costs.

Ethical misconduct and non-compliance
Our code of conduct, which applies to all employees, defines our commitment to integrity, compliance with all applicable legal requirements, high ethical standards and the behaviours and actions we expect of our businesses and people wherever we operate. Incidents of non-compliance with applicable laws and regulation or ethical misconduct could be damaging to our reputation and shareholder value. Multiple events of non-compliance could call into question the integrity of our operations.

Financial control risks
Liquidity, financial capacity and financial exposure
The group has established a financial framework to ensure that it is able to maintain an appropriate level of liquidity and financial capacity and to constrain the level of assessed capital at risk for the purposes of positions taken in financial instruments. Failure to operate within our financial framework could lead to the group becoming financially distressed leading to a loss of shareholder value. Commercial credit risk is measured and controlled to determine the group’s total credit risk. Inability to determine adequately our credit exposure could lead to financial loss. Crude oil prices are generally set in US dollars, while sales of refined products may be in a variety of currencies. Fluctuations in exchange rates can therefore give rise to foreign exchange exposures, with a consequent impact on underlying costs.
     For further information on financial instruments and financial risk factors see Financial statements – Note 28 on page 136 and Note 34 on page 143.

Liabilities and provisions
Changes in the external environment, such as new laws and regulations, market volatility or other factors, could affect the adequacy of our provisions for pensions, tax, environmental and legal liabilities.

Operations risks
Operations – safety and operations
Process safety
Inherent in our operations are hazards that require continual oversight and control. There are risks of technical integrity failure and loss of containment of hydrocarbons and other hazardous material at operating sites or pipelines. Failure to manage these risks could result in injury or loss of life, environmental damage and/or loss of production.

Personal safety
Inability to provide safe environments for our workforce and the public could lead to injuries or loss of life.

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.