BP Fined $50 Million in Texas Refinery Blast That Killed 15

by Mike Hall, Oct 25, 2007

Oil giant BP today agreed to pay $50 million in fines to settle a criminal case over a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 170 at a refinery in Texas City, Texas. That brings to more than $70 million in federal fines BP has paid related to the blast.

Today’s agreement, announced by the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, follows a $21.3 million fine levied in September 2005 by the Occupational Safety Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). The fine included penalties for what OSHA termed 170 “egregious and willful violations” of safety rules.

The Houston Chronicle reported today that BP also has settled at least 3,000 lawsuits stemming from the blast, including all those that involved deaths. Hundreds of lawsuits remain pending. The company set aside $1.6 billion to resolve that litigation. The $50 million fine is for violations of the federal Clean Air Act. The paper reported that the explosion occurred

…when a tower in a unit that boosts octane in gasoline overfilled with hydrocarbons that flowed to an aging vent stack. The stack spewed flammable liquid, which fell to the ground and formed a vapor cloud that ignited…

BP admitted that on the morning of the blast, several procedures required under the Clean Air Act for ensuring the mechanical integrity and a safe startup either had not been established or were ignored.

The company also admitted it had failed to perform a relief valve study to determine whether the stack had the capacity to safely release excess hydrocarbons.

BP also admitted that it had become a regular practice at the company to locate temporary trailers occupied by [workers killed] near the stacks even though BP knew there had been previous releases of hydrocarbons from those structures.

The workers were members of PACE International Union, which later merged with the Steelworkers to become the United Steelworkers (USW).  BP management initially tried to blame the workers for the explosion.

This past March, Eva Rowe, who lost both parents in the blast, told the House Education and Labor committee:

BP’s culture of greed murdered my parents.

Along with the blast settlement, BP today agreed to pay $303 million to settle civil price-fixing charges brought by federal investigators related to propane market manipulation in 2004.

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