OREANDA-NEWS. BP's US pipelines business was recognized yesterday for industry-leading safety and environmental performance in 2013 by the American Petroleum Institute (API) at its annual pipeline conference.

Don Porter, who leads BP's US pipelines business, accepted API's Occupational Safety and Environmental Performance awards in the large operator category on behalf of the company.

“It's remarkable for a company to earn both awards,” Porter said. “I believe it speaks to BP's long-term commitment to continually improve its safety and environmental performance.”

BP earned both awards by logging the best worker safety and liquids handling performance statistics among all pipeline entrants last year.

In 2013, BP's US pipeline employees and contractors worked 5.7 million hours without an OSHA recordable incident, achieving a Recordable Incident Frequency (RIF) rate of zero. Since February 2012, BP's U.S. pipelines business has logged more than 13 million work hours without recording an incident causing a worker to miss work due to an injury.

BP was also the top environmental performer based on the two metrics used in the judging - number of releases per mile of liquid pipeline operated and volume released per barrel-mile of liquid transported.

BP's 3,705-mile US pipeline network recorded only five spills of greater than five gallons in 2013 for a rate of 0.00135 incidents per mile. This equated to a total released volume of 3.2 ounces released for every 100,000 barrels transported.

“We're very proud of our employees and contractors for having achieved these remarkable results in 2013,” Porter added. “Our goal is to build on this industry-leading performance in 2014.”