BP Slammed With Multimillion Dollar Fine for Safety Violations

by Barbara McPherson | October 30, 2009 at 09:54 am

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BP has been slammed with a $87 million dollar fine for safety violations in which several workers lost their lives and nearly two hundred were injured at an important U.S. refinery.

The Texas City disaster was the worst industrial accident in the US for a generation. The disaster happened in March 2005 when workers over-filled a container with volatile chemicals, sparking an explosion that sent a geyser of burning liquid cascading over nearby accommodation trailers. In addition to claiming 15 lives, the resulting chaos left more than 170 people injured.

Officials in the US say that BP has failed to fulfil commitments to reduce risk to workers and to fix technical issues - including faults in pressure relief systems at Texas City, which is the third largest petroleum refinery in the US with 1,200 employees. The company had agreed to a series of measures in a previous $21.3m settlement with OSHA and had committed itself to an independent safety audit.

U.S. labour secretary, Hilda Solis, announced the assessement of the fine which is the largest in the history of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration(OSHA).

BP has acquired a poor reputation in the U.S. with regard to worker safety and environmental concerns. It's operations in Alaska have resulted in pipeline leaks. The Department of Justice charged them with failing to institute adequate maintenance procedures, a felony charge, to which they pleaded guilty in 2007.

Since the Texas City disaster, the U.S. OSHA has issued BP with 272 notifications of safety violations. Three more deaths have occurred since 2005 at the Texas City plant.

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