BP Texas refinery hit with record fine

By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. safety regulators on Friday hit oil giant BP with a record $87.4- million fine for failing to fix safety violations at its Texas City, Texas, refinery after a deadly 2005 explosion.

In announcing the fines, U.S. Labour Secretary Hilda Solis said old and new safety violations found by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration at the nation's third largest refinery "could lead to another catastrophe" like the 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 180.

BP filed a contest to the fine, calling OSHA's actions disappointing as the company believed the Texas City refinery had honoured a 2005 agreement with the agency to fix safety problems that led to the blast.

BP said contesting the fine will send the dispute to a U.S. administrative law judge for a ruling. BP also has an appeal pending before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, an independent panel that reviews OSHA actions.

"We believe our efforts at the Texas City refinery to improve process safety performance have been among the most strenuous and comprehensive that the refining industry has ever seen," said Texas City Refinery Manager Keith Casey in a statement.

A United Steelworkers safety official said the union, which represents Texas City refinery workers, would seek to participate in any settlement talks or hearings before the commission and judge.

"We want this settlement to be fair to company, fair to OSHA and especially fair to workers and to the community around the refinery," said the USW's Michael Wright.

Of the fine, $56.7 million was for 270 instances of failure to abate problems found in 2005. The remaining $30.7 million was for 439 new wilful violations of industry process safety standards, OSHA said.