Texas City Refinery BP
BP owns one of three oil refineries located in Texas City, Texas. The facility has the ability to process up to 437,000 barrels of crude oil on any given day, but the plant has been plagued with serious issues that have often affected that output level.
One of the first came in the form of asbestos based products that were used within the plant. These products were commonly used due to their ability to withstand the high temperatures that every refinery produces, but they were also later discovered to be highly toxic. Exposure to these items can lead to the inhalation of asbestos particles, which can then cause respiratory damage as well as mesothelioma, a type of cancer that has taken many lives. Anyone who worked with or around these products is urged to alert their healthcare provider about their possible exposure right away.
The BP plant suffered through one of the worst disasters in refinery history. In 2005 a piece of equipment called an isomerization unit exploded while it was in the process of starting up. The impact of the explosion killed 15 employees, and injured more than one hundred others. The ensuing fire did a lot of damage to the facility, causing the plant to be able to only operate at half capacity for quite some time. Later investigations showed that the primary reason for the explosion was operator error, however the equipment itself was also partially to blame. It was noted for being old and in poor operating condition. Over a ten year period of time, this equipment was shown to be malfunctioning and unsafe, however no steps were ever taken to fix it.
After the catastrophe, BP entered a guilty plea for committing an environmental crime. They were issued a fee of $50 million dollars, but that amount was protested by the families of victims who were killed or hurt during the explosion. In response, BP greatly increased the amount of money they would pay out to compensate the families to an amount of $1.6 billion.
Soon after, another explosion hit the plant when hydrogen was ignited within a processing unit. One person was injured in the blast, but not seriously hurt. This time the fault was due to the wrong type of pipe being installed within the piece of equipment. The one that was used was not the steel based product that should have been in operation.
Another fatality occurred at the plant in January of 2008. A plant supervisor received a head injury during the maintenance of a water filtration vessel.
Following these incidents, BP hired a consultant to review the plant's safety measures. The review was led by then Secretary of State, James Baker. The final determination stated that the plant had neglected what it referred to as “process safety”, which included proper maintenance of equipment, sufficient safety devices for the facility and thorough analysis of potential safety hazards. BP has stated that they will take steps to improve the safety of their facility in the future.
Last modified: December 09, 2009.
