BP Refinery Cited For Serious Safety Violations

Already in the cross-hairs of federal and congressional investigators -- as well as dozens of plaintiff's attorneys -- for its role in the Gulf oil rig explosion and the spreading oil spill, BP was recently hit with some more bad news.

The oil giant's Cherry Point refinery in Washington State, the largest one in the state, was slapped with 13 serious safety violations and $69,200 in fines by the Washington Division of Occupational Safety and Health last week. The giant refinery processes about 225,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

The probe, which began in 2007, focused on a section of the plant which refines low-grade oil into gasoline. One violation cited the fact that 38 process safety recommendations were not implemented, according to the citation.

According to BNA's Occupational Safety and Health Reporter:

The 12 violations cited under Washington's standard for process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals (WAC 296-67) included citations for allegedly not addressing certain recommendations made by the refinery's process hazard analysis; for not ensuring piping and instrument diagrams were complete and accurate; for failing to provide or update certain written operating procedures; for failing to document each test and inspection performed on process equipment; and for failing to establish a regular frequency for such inspections, among others.

BP is reviewing the citations and would not rule out contesting some of them.

"A 'timely manner' is obviously a fluid standard," refinery spokesman Bill Kidd told the Bureau of National Affairs. "Our general stand is look, we haven't just decided to fire off and contest all these things. We want to make sure we're continuously assessing our safety management procedures, and we want to work constructively with [the Division of Occupational Safety and Health] to resolve those concerns."

The latest incident is sure to raise more questions about whether the company has violated its probation on environmental charges stemming from the 2005 explosion at its Texas City refinery, which killed 15 people and injured about 170. Under a plea agreement, BP paid a $50 milion fine and agreed to three years of probation for violating federal clean air laws.

Brent Coon, a lawyer who represents victims in both the refinery explosion and the oil rig disaster, wrote to Judge Lee Rosenthal on May 6, asking that she rescind the plea deal due to a "continued pattern of mistakes".

Letter to Judge Rosenthal

Comments

[Zoidie]

03:59 AM on 05/14/2010

BOYCOTT BP!!

BP brands to boycott include Castrol, Arco, Aral, am/pm, Amoco, and Wild Bean Cafe.

I feel bad for the individual station owner's, but they will need to switch.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1429659207&ref=profile#!/pages/Boycott-BP/119101198107726?ref=mf

[GeoLee]

02:56 AM on 05/14/2010

A $69,000 fine is about 10 seconds of profit being skimmed off. Unless fines become meaningful, where is the incentive to change any of their practices. The inmates are in control of the asylum where regulation is concerned...and a lot else.

[Zoidie]

03:26 AM on 05/14/2010

That's precisely the problem, these fines need to be (at least) in the millions.

[Phillip Bell]

01:39 AM on 05/14/2010

Remember that BP is already the recipient of the single largest fine by OSHA ($86 million USD) after their Texas plant explosion that killed 15 employees and injured 180 others. Join our Facebook boycott of BP:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=116094405092992

[sendmejackson]

01:29 AM on 05/14/2010

"The oil giant's Cherry Point refinery in Washington State, the largest one in the state, was slapped with 13 serious safety violations and $69,200 in fines..."

Wow, seventy grand in fines? BP makes that much profit every two and a half minutes (based on their reported annual profit last year of $16.578 billion dollars.)

[hangdogit]

10:45 PM on 05/13/2010

What do these three disasters have in common?

1. Gulf oil spill.
2. Housing market collapse and Wall St near-meltdown.
3. Sinking of Titanic.

All were deemed to be "impossible" -- thus no backup plan for oil spill, no money set aside to pay credit default swaps and not nearly enough lifeboats on the Titanic. Another common factor: sheer greed -- especially for the first two.

[HWBII]

08:53 PM on 05/13/2010

These fines are regarded by BP as the price of doing business. Probably written off, as well.

There is only one solution punitive enough:

SHUT THE REFINERY DOWN UNTIL EVERY INFRACTION HAS BEEN ADDRESSED AND FIXED.

That'll get their attention.

[jcaunter]

08:11 PM on 05/13/2010

Hehe, "more bad news". If I were BP I would think that mighty fine news indeed. $69,200 for 3 years of rotten safety? Fair price I'd say.

[jcaunter]

08:10 PM on 05/13/2010

$69,200 fine?

Does that even pay the salary of one of the people who investigated this thing for the past 3 years?

[HWBII]

08:03 PM on 05/13/2010

Unless the fines are truly significant and punitive, companies like BP simply regard them as the cost of doing business.

The US Government has to start shutting refineries, deep-sea rigs and mines until EVERY SINGLE INFRACTION HAS BEEN FIXED.

They'll feel it then.

[GreenEyedGuru]

07:42 PM on 05/13/2010

wow, $69k, they'll make that back in what, 0.1 seconds?

[Bo66]

07:38 PM on 05/13/2010

*

After or during the investigation by the Earth-Killers if congress will start to investigate the secret meetings by Cheney and the energy tycoons of the oil corporations? Cheney received 34M form Halliburton when he become VP and millions after that through the eight years that he was President of the United States.

Believe me there is a cover up of the greatest magnitude ever in our US government during the Bush Crime Family era.

My question for you tonight is: Will the Obama Admin. do anything about the crimes against the American people committed by Cheney and the Bush Crime Family?

And you say:
Will the new “Top Hat” capper stop the geyser of death in the Gulf? Or will BP/Halliburton/Tansocean literally try to stuff it with garbage? It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

Yes it is sad, and what is sadder is that BP/Halliburton/Transocean seams to have more power then the US government through money/lobbyist/congress puppets.

The answers yesterday that I got were all negative.

Sorry , we will pay through our sweat/blood/tears and at the pumps.

Everybody is saying that the three BP/Halliburton/Transocean should be brought up on manslaughter. I say you will never see this like you have not seen Bush and Cheney brought up on war crimes. Oh it’s a wonderful world we live in or should I say that we should get corporations out of the justice department.

Leave a Reply

[GeoLee]

03:06 AM on 05/14/2010

I absolutely agree. The owners of Exxon, Shell, BP, Koch Energy, Trans ocean, Halliburton, own the country. Many of us voted two years ago so our country could reverse that Cheneyish reality. We are in war because of oil and nobody is willing, it seems, to change the balance of power.

[saranaghati]

07:07 PM on 05/13/2010

The well is still going. Attempt #2 did not work. It is hard not to get depressed. One person posted that they could have stuffed materials down the well and stopped. He said the big issue is that they want something tha will allow them to continue to pull out oil. I think he has a very good point. You could see that attempt #2 has columns on the top that can be used to pump the oil up. The only hopeful thing I can see is the strenght this gives to the anti offshore drilling movements. But at what a price. What a price.

[Pilingon]

06:57 PM on 05/13/2010

Please allow me to respond as if a Republican might respond regarding this news story. "Uh if you really think about it this is American citizens at fault... if it weren't for Americans buying so much gas BP wouldn't have to drill for oil and then refine it and then make billions in profits by selling it. Also it's not BP's coastline to worry about so why should they pay to clean it up. I mean if your car gets dirty do you expect others to clean it up? This is all because of Obamacare and all those f'n liberals trying to take away our guns. At least that's what Glenn Beck says every night on the box with moving pictures. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!"

[saranaghati]

07:02 PM on 05/13/2010

Let me be our first fan

[mummblemouth]

02:49 AM on 05/14/2010

You'd make a more believable con if every other word was misspelled and if there were a handful of grammatical errors thrown in for good measure. Plus, you forgot to mention mustard, Muslim and birth certificate. Otherwise, yes you nailed it. Fanned.

[GeoLee]

03:08 AM on 05/14/2010

Te he chuckle...love it!

[Matt Wilstein]

06:38 PM on 05/13/2010

if you come up with any good ideas, make sure to enter BP's 'Look Everyone, I Capped The Well' contest: http://bit.ly/9M7QY4

[SamKnause]

06:30 PM on 05/13/2010

$69,200.00 in fines !!!!! What a joke !!!!!!