BP Settles for Over $13 million for Abate Violations

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently announced that the agency and BP Products North America Inc. have resolved most (409 of 439) citations issued by it in October 2009. BP agreed to pay $13,027,000 in penalties and has already stopped some violations and is in the process of abating the rest, with the end of 2012 as its deadline.

OSHA reported that most of BP’s infractions were willful violations of OSHA's process-safety management (PSM) standard at the oil company’s refinery in Texas City, Texas.

Although OSHA safety training—OSHA 10 training and OSHA 30, for example—is now a pre-employment requirement by many employers, many workers continue to be exposed to avoidable worksite hazards because of employer ignorance, negligence, or plain disregard of basic health and safety standards.

"Protecting workers and saving lives is the ultimate goal of this agreement," pointed out Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "For the workers at BP's Texas City refinery, this settlement will help establish a culture of safety. The workers who help keep our nation's oil and gas industries running deserve to go to work each day without fear of losing their lives."

According to OSHA, in September 2005 it cited BP for a record $21 million following the catastrophic explosion at its Texas City facility that killed 15 workers in March 2005. OSHA and BP later came to an agreement that compelled BP to correct its deficiencies.

In a follow-up investigation in 2009, OSHA discovered that BP had failed to correct many items in the agreement, which resulted in 270 failure-to-abate notices and in BP agreeing to pay a penalty of $50.6 million to resolve the notices. In addition, OSHA cited BP for 439 willful violations of the agency's PSM standard. The new citations carried $30.7 million in proposed penalties.

"Make no mistake, the scope of this [new] agreement should send a clear signal that OSHA is committed to ensuring BP takes seriously the safety and health of America's most important natural resource – its workers," stated Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.

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