THE OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION (OSHA) has just levied penalties against the BP oil giant in the amount of $87,430,000 for its failure to take corrective actions following a deadly explosion at their Texas City, Texas, refinery in March, 2005. The destructive blast killed 15 people and injured 170 others. Investigation found that the explosion was caused by a series of safety violations on the site and BP entered into an agreement with OSHA to correct the deficiencies. However, they failed to do so.
The industrial safety website ISHN.com reports:
“When BP signed the OSHA settlement from the March 2005 explosion, it agreed to take comprehensive action to protect employees. Instead of living up to that commitment, BP has allowed hundreds of potential hazards to continue unabated,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “Fifteen people lost their lives as a result of the 2005 tragedy, and 170 others were injured. An $87 million fine won’t restore those lives, but we can’t let this happen again. Workplace safety is more than a slogan. It’s the law. The U.S. Department of Labor will not tolerate the preventable exposure of workers to hazardous conditions.”
For noncompliance with the terms of the settlement agreement, the BP Texas City Refinery has been issued 270 “notifications of failure to abate” with fines totaling $56.7 million. Each notification represents a penalty of $7,000 times 30 days, the period that the conditions have remained unabated. OSHA also identified 439 new willful violations for failures to follow industry-accepted controls on the pressure relief safety systems and other process safety management violations with penalties totaling $30.7 million.
“BP was given four years to correct the safety issues identified pursuant to the settlement agreement, yet OSHA has found hundreds of violations of the agreement and hundreds of new violations. BP still has a great deal of work to do to assure the safety and health of the employees who work at this refinery,” said acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab.
BP’s Texas City refinery is the third-largest in the U. S. with a capacity of 475,000 bbl. of crude per day.
This is the largest fine in OSHA’s history. The 2nd-largest penalty, $21 million, was also levied against BP.
Thanks to mofiretrain1.
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