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BP's Texas refinery was 'unsafe', and firm knew it: US
AFP
WASHINGTON
Petroleumworld.com 10 31 06
Critical equipment at a major Texas oil refinery operated by British energy giant BP was "unsafe" and "antiquated" prior to a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 180 others, a US government agency said Monday.
In preliminary findings, the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) said: "Internal BP documents prepared between 2002 and 2005 revealed knowledge of significant safety problems at the Texas City refinery."
The agency has been investigating the deadly March 2005 refinery blast at BP's Texas City refinery. The CSB said officials would reveal further preliminary findings and safety recommendations at a news conference in Houston, Texas on Tuesday.
"The CSBs investigation shows that BPs global management was aware of problems with maintenance, spending and infrastructure well before March 2005," CSB chairman Carolyn Merritt said in a statement.
"BP did respond with a variety of measures aimed at improving safety. However, the focus of many of these initiatives was on improving procedural compliance and reducing occupational injury rates, while catastrophic safety risks remained.
"Unsafe and antiquated equipment designs were left in place, and unacceptable deficiencies in preventative maintenance were tolerated," Merritt said.
Some of the defective equipment, according to the CSB, included alarms and gauges that were not working properly on the day of the blast.
A BP spokesman said the blast was caused by workers not following the correct procedures.
"We agree with the CSB that ultimately the explosion was a preventable tragedy, but we do not understand some of the comments issued by the CSB," the BP spokesman said.
"We will not comment publicly until the CSB issues its final report. We carried out a thorough investigation. We have shared our findings with the CSB.
The CSB is due to issue a final report on its findings in 2007.
"The causes of what happened that day were very complex. They were caused by people not following procedures that were laid down," the spokesman said.
The British energy group has changed some of its procedures at the refinery since the blast, which was the worst US industrial accident in over a decade, and appointed new managers to oversee its operations.
Merritt praised some of these efforts, but reiterated earlier CSB findings that some equipment at the refinery was of an obsolete design.
AFP 30 23 54 GMT 10 06
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