BP disagrees with some US safety board findings

31 October 2006 21:47  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--BP said on Tuesday it disagreed with the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board’s (CSB) assertion that the company’s cost-cutting measures played a role in the deadly 23 March, 2005 explosion at its Texas City, Texas refinery.

CSB chairman Carolyn Merritt told reporters that the “drastic effects of corporate cost-cutting at the Texas City refinery, where maintenance and infrastructure deteriorated over time,” set the stage for the blasts that killed 15 workers and injured 180 others. BP cut fixed costs at the refinery by 25% after it acquired the facility from Amoco in December 1998, she said.

BP recognised the existence of infrastructure safety problems at the refinery and in some cases was working to improve performance but catastrophic hazards remained, Merritt said.

BP spokesman Ronnie Chappell said BP’s own investigators “found no direct link between previous budgets and the explosion.” He said the BP team did not find budget issues to be immediate or critical factors in the explosion.

BP also disagreed with the CSB’s findings that the condition of equipment and instrumentation at the refinery was a factor in the explosion, Chappell said. “Our investigative team said the equipment was in good condition and instrumentation was adequate.”

Chappell reiterated BP’s statement that it took responsibility for the explosion.

The CSB also called on the American Petroleum Institute (API) to revise its refinery guidance practice to warn against using blowdown drums similar to the one that overflowed with hydrocarbons in Texas City and ignited. CSB lead investigator Don Holmstrom said the current API guidelines contained important safety gaps.

API spokesman Bill Bush said an organisation task force will consider revising the guidelines. Bush said the task force did not have a deadline and said he did not know who were included in the group.

By: Brian Ford
+1 713 525 2653

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