Explosion at BP's Texas refinery result of "cost-cutting:" US - Yahoo! News

HOUSTON (AFP) - Overzealous cost-cutting by British energy giant BP set the stage for a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 180 others at a major Texas oil refinery, a US government agency said.
"What BP experienced was a perfect storm where ageing infrastructure, overzealous cost-cutting inadequate design and a risk-blindness all converged," US Chemical Safety Board chairman Carolyn Merritt said at a press conference.
Her remarks follow the release of a preliminary report Monday which found that BP was aware that its Texas operations were "unsafe" and "antiquated."
Merritt said Tuesday that BP had been working to resolve the problems, but that one BP official admitted to investigators that it was "too little, too late."
She also noted that BP auditors had found "serious safety problems that were common across 35 business units worldwide."
Merritt cautioned that the problems discovered at BP are common across the industry and recommended that standard safety practices be updated to prevent similar explosions.
"The experience of BP should serve as a cautionary tale to every oil and chemical company," she said. "No corporation should believe it is immune from what happened to BP."
The March 2005 blast was the worst industrial accident in the United States since 1990. The CSB is due to issue a final report on its findings in 2007.
A BP spokesman said Monday the blast was caused by workers not following the correct procedures.
"We agree with the CSB that ultimately the explosion was a preventable tragedy, but we do not understand some of the comments issued by the CSB," the BP spokesman said.
"We will not comment publicly until the CSB issues its final report. We carried out a thorough investigation. We have shared our findings with the CSB."
However, the CSB said that there were eight serious incidents between 1994 and 2004 involving the same type of unit that ultimately blew up and set the plant alight, including two in which the blowdown stack caught fire.
BP had also not followed federal regulations which required safety studies of relief valves, lead investigator Don Holmstrom said.
Had it performed a study, BP would have realized the drum that rapidly overfilled in March 2005 and shot a geyser of flammable liquid that set off a series of explosions "simply wasn't large enough."
Holmstrom also noted that the plant had recognized in 1977 safety standards that the blowndown stacks were inadequate and that drums like the one which exploded ought to be connected to a closed system or a flare. BP Engineers had recommended replacing the drums in 2002, Holmstrom said.
"However, this was not done," he said. "Cost pressure drove this decision."
CSB said that BP has 17 similar drums at its five North American refineries and that it will take months or years to replace them all.