MARCH 22, 2015
TEXAS CITY, TEXAS
Ten years ago Monday, a hydrocarbon vapor cloud explosion
tore through the Texas City oil refinery, killing 15 workers and injuring more
than 100 others. Today, those affected
have played a role in changing the way safety is viewed in the petroleum
industry, an industry brimming with Aggies.
Texas A&M Regent Anthony Buzbee represented 165 clients
who were injured in the explosion in cases against British Petroleum, the
company that owned the refinery at the time.
“I think the industry learned a lot from the explosion,”
Buzbee said. “I know from my involvement in other refinery accidents that the BP
2005 explosion has been studied by its competitors and those in the industry in
an effort to learn from the disaster.”
Buzbee said he has seen change in the industry over the last
decade, but said he still has doubts as to whether BP itself learned a lesson.
He said BP admitted fault right away, but continued to challenge the severity
of the workers’ injuries.
He said the explosion can be used as a lesson for all.
“The problem in the oil and gas field is that there will
always be top-side pressure for production,” Buzbee said. “It takes a
well-trained work force, with discipline, to resist that management pressure.
When management puts production above safety, people die.”
Eric Newell, Class of 2000, works for Brent Coon and Associates,
a firm that represented about 400 people, including the well-known victim Eva
Rowe, who lost both her parents in the explosion. Newell said at the heart of
the explosion was BP’s initiative to cut costs by 25 percent.
“There were any number of relatively cheap things they could
have done to prevent the explosion,” Newell said.
A culture existed at BP, Newell said, that disregarded
workers and their safety in favor of profit. To address this, Newell said there
are documents from the time of investigation that other companies can use to
show their employees what they can do to prevent explosions occurring in the
future.
Other efforts have been made to improve safety. Newell said
part of the settlement in the Rowe case required BP to donate $32 million to
university programs and hospitals, including the Mary Kay O’Connor Process
Safety Center at Texas A&M.
Sam Mannan, director of the O’Connor Process Safety Center,
said one objective of the center is to make safety second nature in process
industries. The center was established in 1995 in response to a 1989 chemical
plant explosion in Houston, killing Mary Kay O’Connor along with 22 other
workers.
“The center’s mission is to lead the integration of process
safety through education, research and service into the education and practice
of all individuals and organizations involved in chemical operations,” Mannan
said. “The vision of the center is to serve as the premier process safety
resource for all stakeholders so that safety becomes second nature for managers,
engineers and workers.”
Mannan said lessons from the explosion permeated various
areas including design issues, technical safety issues, management system flaws
and safety culture.
“A major finding was how risk should be managed with regard
to placement of occupied buildings within plant boundaries,” Mannan said. “Yet
another finding was related to the differences between personal safety and
process safety and the need to have separate and specific performance
indicators for each.”
Looking forward, Mannan said he does not think there is a
quantifiable way to look at changes made.
“There is presently no reliable means for evaluating the
performance of industry in limiting the number and severity of accidental
chemical releases,” Mannan said. “There is also limited data with which to
prioritize efforts to reduce the risks associated with such releases.”
Newell said he would want people to look at the events
surrounding the explosion and remember that it was preventable.
“There was absolutely no reason for it to have occurred,”
Newell said. “I wasn’t an engineering student when I was at A&M, but I
became fairly knowledgeable about things like process safety, which is
something that A&M has one of the foremost centers in the country.”
Newell said engineering students going into the industry,
especially in management, need to be aware that it is their job to make safety
a priority and try to not focus only on profit. Good luck with that; if the employee does not make profit, then out the door he/she goes. Safety is secondary to profit. Everything else is lip service.
“If you focus too much on the short term to make some money,
people can get hurt,” Newell said.
At an academic level, Mannan said universities like A&M
can respond by adjusting and changing curriculum.
“Academic and research organizations as well have a societal
responsibility to respond to incidents such as Texas City in studying these
incidents in order to determine what changes may be needed in the curriculum to
better prepare our graduates,” Mannan said.
Source: http://www.thebatt.com
//--------------------------//
COURT RULES BP BLAST VICTIMS RIGHTS’ HAVE BEEN VIOLATED
MAY 9, 2008
A US federal appeals court has ruled that the rights of
victims in BP’s fatal Texas City explosion in March 2005 were violated by US
prosecutors who reached a secret plea agreement with the UK oil group late last
year before consulting victims.
The victims insist the plea deal is too lenient and they
should have been consulted on the terms. “We are confident that when those
objections are considered, this sweetheart plea bargain will be ultimately
rejected,” said David Perry, lead attorney for the victims.
The Texas City agreement was part of a $380m settlement BP
made with US authorities to resolve cases being pursued by the US government
following the Texas City explosion, which killed 15 people and injured 500 in
and around the facility; a major spill and corrosion in its Alaska operations;
and a propane scandal. The Texas City portion of the settlement involved a $50m
criminal fine.
The court decision adds to BP’s troubles in the US, where a
Congressional Committee is already investigating whether the plea agreement is
a strong enough deterrent, protects workers and takes into account victims’
rights.
Of course, after this article was written, the BP Horizon disaster happenned in the Gulf. That disaster killed many workers, caused massive contamination and almost drove BP out of business.
