The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced on September 30 that it is issuing $87,430,000 in proposed penalties to BP Products North America Inc. for the company’s failure to correct potential hazards faced by employees. This fine is the largest in OSHA’s history. The prior largest total penalty, $21 million, was issued in 2005, also against BP. Safety violations at BP’s Texas City, Texas, refinery resulted in a massive explosion — with 15 deaths and 170 people injured. BP entered into a settlement agreement with OSHA in September of that year, under which the company agreed to correct and eliminate potential hazards similar to those that caused the 2005 tragedy.
After a length investigation OSHA has determined BP has not lived up to their commitments to improve the safety to its employees. For noncompliance with the terms of the settlement agreement, the BP Texas City Refinery has been issued 270 “notifications of failure to abate” with fines totaling $56.7 million. Each notification represents a penalty of $7,000 times 30 days, the period that the conditions have remained unabated. OSHA also identified 439 new willful violations for failures to follow industry-accepted controls on the pressure relief safety systems and other process safety management violations with penalties totaling $30.7 million.
The BP Texas City Refinery is the third largest refinery in the United States with a refining capacity of 475,000 barrels of crude per day. It is located on a 1,200-acre facility in Texas City, southeast of Houston in Galveston County.
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