Houston, Texas Man Charged With False Statements In Relation To Blowout Preventer Testing On Oil Platform In Gulf Of Mexico. He provided False Test Charts.
January 28, 2015
This week the United States Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Louisiana announced that Race Addington, 49, of Houston, Texas, was charged in a two-count Bill of Information with making false statements to Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) inspectors in relation to the veracity of blowout preventer testing on an offshore oil and gas platform.These charges demonstrate that BSEE will work with the Department of Justice and other federal agencies to ensure that individuals who falsify records concerning the integrity of critical safety components are held accountable for their actions.
According to the Bill of Information, on or about November 28, 2012, Addington, a well site supervisor for a platform in the Gulf of Mexico, presented a fabricated blowout preventer pressure test chart to the BSEE inspectors with the expectation that it would be a passing test and the inspectors would not find the platform to be in non-compliance for failing to properly test the blowout preventer system.
On December 6, 2012, during an investigation of the veracity of the blowout preventer test by BSEE, Addington lied and told BSEE investigators that the BSEE inspectors had mistakenly retrieved the wrong pressure chart from the files, when in truth and in fact he knew that he had personally presented a fabricated chart to inspectors as the actual test record for the platform’s blowout preventer system.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office praised the work of the Department of Interior's Office of Inspector General, BSEE's Investigation and Review Unit, and the Environmental Protection Agency in investigating this matter. If convicted, Addington faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 5 years per count and/or a maximum fine of $250,000 per count.