Two Years After BP Explosion, USW Survey Shows Refineries Still Not Safe

by James Parks, Nov 30, 2007

Even after the explosion that killed 15 and injured 170 at a BP refinery two years ago, the oil industry still has not made the changes needed to protect workers from serious injury, a new survey by the United Steelworkers (USW) reveals. 

According to Beyond Texas City: The State of Process Safety in the Unionized U.S. Oil Refining Industry, the conditions that led to the March 2005 explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery are widespread throughout the refining sector and the industry is failing to learn from such explosions and near-misses. 

The report is based on a survey sent to local unions at 71 USW-represented refineries nine months after the Texas City explosion. The 51 sites that responded represented 49 percent of the U.S. refining capacity and 22 refining companies. 

Workers at 90 percent of the 51 refineries said their facilities had at least one of the conditions that caused the BP blast: 

• Using atmospheric vents on process units.
• Failing to properly manage instruments and alarm systems.
• Placing trailers and unprotected buildings near high-risk process facilities.
• Allowing nonessential personnel in high-risk areas during startup and shutdown. 

Three of five (61 percent) of the respondents reported at least one incident or near-miss involving at least one of the four contributing factors in the past three years. Many of the refineries with at least one of the four conditions reported after the BP explosion either did not take action or took actions judged as less than very effective. A review of past refinery disasters also revealed similar hazardous conditions being repeated and not learned from, the survey says.

USW President Leo Gerard says the potential still exists for another Texas City-type explosion: 

Apparently, that incident did not make enough of an impression on refiners because they continue to not heed the lessons learned from the explosions, fires and other incidents plaguing the industry. 

The survey also revealed other shortfalls such as inadequate staffing, lack of safety preparedness for contract workers to enable them to contribute to incident prevention, insufficient refinery preparation for handling hazardous material emergencies and lack of emergency response training for the general plant population. 

Oil refineries need to carry out certain safety procedures and involve workers and their union representatives in implementing them, the report says. It also supports strengthening Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Environmental Protection Agency standards and ensuring their rigorous enforcement.  

As Gerard says: 

These proposals are doable, and while they can’t bring back the 15 workers killed at the BP Texas City refinery, they can make it harder for future deaths and injuries to occur. 

For a copy of the report, click here.

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