A newly released final report on the US' worst industrial accident since 1990 blames London-based BP for cost cutting that left its Texas City plant vulnerable to catastrophe, resulting in an explosion that killed 15 people and injured 170.
The US agency responsible for worker safety also failed to inspect plants with enough care and frequency to prevent an accident like the 2005 explosion, and does not have enough qualified inspectors for US oil and chemical facilities, the US government report and its lead investigator said on Tuesday.
US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board's (CSB) report said that although the Texas City plant had had several fatal accidents over the last 30 years, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had done only one process safety management inspection at the refinery in 1998.
BP acquired the refinery when it merged with Amoco in 1998. Soon after, the report said, BP ordered a 25 percent, across-the-budget cut in fixed spending at its refineries. In a preliminary investigation of the accident released in October 2005, the CSB said the Texas City plant fostered a culture of bad management and failed to recognize and correct problems.
"The combination of cost-cutting, production pressures and failure to invest caused a progressive deterioration of safety at the refinery," CSB Chairwoman Carolyn Merritt said of the latest findings.
In a statement on Tuesday, BP said it has accepted responsibility for the accident, worked diligently to provide fair compensation to those injured and to families of those who died, and cooperated fully with the CSB.
In a brief statement released on Tuesday evening, Edwin Foulke, Assistant US Labor Secretary for OSHA, said the CSB report confirms OSHA's own investigative findings.
The CSB does not issue citations or fines but makes safety recommendations to plants, industry organizations and regulatory agencies such as OSHA and the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Democratic Representative John Dingell said his Energy and Commerce Committee plans hearings into BP's safety programs in light of the findings about the Texas City blast and the Prudhoe Bay oil spills last year.
Beginning in 2002, Merritt said, BP commissioned a series of audits and studies that revealed serious safety problems at the Texas City refinery, including a lack of preventative maintenance and training.
The reports were shared with BP executives in London and provided to at least one member of the executive board, she said.
"BP's response was too little and too late," Merritt said.
The Texas City explosion occurred when part of the plant's isomerization unit, which boosts the level of octane in gasoline, overfilled with highly flammable liquid hydrocarbons.
A geyser of flammable liquid and vapor ignited as the unit started up. Alarms and gauges that should have warned of the overfilling equipment failed to work.
At a public meeting on Tuesday, several citizens expressed cynicism in the petrochemical industry.
"It comes down to corporate greed," said Lee Medley of the Galveston County Central Labor Council. "BP just drew the short straw. This could have happened in any one of these refineries or chemical plants from Brownsville all the way to Pensacola, Florida. We've seen the same thing in every one you work at. It's short cuts, it's job consolidation."
The CSB report recommends, among other measures, that BP appoint a board member with expertise in process safety.
The report notes that proposed OSHA fines during the 20 years preceding the March 2005 explosion -- a period in which 10 people were killed at the refinery -- totaled US$270,255. But net fines collected after negotiations came to US$77,860. Six months after the blast, in September 2005, OSHA found BP committed more than 300 willful violations of its rules and fined it US$21.3 million.
At the time, BP chief executive John Browne defended the company's overall safety record but said its oversight of safety measures "wasn't excellent enough."
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