Balanced Scorecard Toolkit for Crisis Management

ConocoPhillips is a multinational energy company with headquarters in Houston, Texas, United States. It is the fifth largest energy organization in the world in private sector. On April 16, 2001, a fire and explosion occurred at the Humber Refinery. The refinery area was devastated and many buildings in the site were seriously damaged. Surrounding properties in South Killingholme village and other places also suffered widespread damage.

However, there were no deaths or injuries, since the disaster struck on a bank holiday and very few workers were at the site at the time of fire and explosion due to shift changeover. Investigations revealed that ConocoPhillips had failed to understand the conditions under which the pipework was operating. The company had not inspected the pipework properly in the Saturate Gas Plant (SGP) of the Humber Refinery. After the incident, Judge Reddihough seriously indicted ConocoPhillips for breach of safety and health legislation, mentioning that the incident could have been catastrophic.