BP faces rising scrutiny over newest deadly accident in US

US authorities have opened a second inquiry into an explosion at a BP refinery in Ohio that killed two staff, because the British oil firm’s security document within the US comes underneath renewed scrutiny.

The Occupational Security and Well being Administration, a federal company, advised the Monetary Instances it was investigating the incident on the BP-Husky Toledo refinery in Oregon, Ohio, as is required after a fatality.

Fatalities at BP operations have declined over the previous decade. Nineteen staff and contractors have died worldwide prior to now 10 years, together with 4 killed in a terrorist assault in Algeria in 2013, in contrast with 128 deaths between 2002 and 2012.

However the FTSE 100 firm has a very chequered historical past within the US. In 2005, 15 individuals have been killed and 170 injured in an explosion at a BP refinery in Texas, which the US Chemical Security and Hazard Investigation Board blamed on “security deficiencies in any respect ranges of the BP Company”.

5 years later an explosion on the firm’s Deepwater Horizon platform within the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 staff and injured 17, ensuing within the worst oil spill in American historical past. The catastrophe in the end price the corporate greater than $60bn.

In 2013, partly in response to the fallout from that catastrophe, BP’s then boss Bob Dudley, a US nationwide, appointed an govt vice-president for security and operational danger to sit down on the manager workforce and report on to him as chief govt.

Bernard Looney succeeded Dudley on the prime of BP in February 2020 and launched probably the most bold company overhauls within the sector as he dedicated to cut back the corporate’s dependence on fossil fuels and put money into greener types of power.

As a part of the reset, Looney appointed a brand new govt workforce however didn’t appoint a selected senior chief accountable for security. Below the present construction, BP’s head of security doesn’t sit on the manager workforce and reviews to the manager vice-president for manufacturing and operations, not the chief govt.

BP is within the strategy of promoting the Toledo refinery, which has been in operation for greater than 100 years, to Canadian oil group Cenovus as a part of a $300mn deal struck in August. Cenovus at present owns 50 per cent of the power, which processes as much as 160,000 barrels a day of crude and provides gasoline to markets throughout the American Midwest.

Data present OSHA has issued the refinery with a sequence of “critical” security violations in recent times, outlined as an infraction that might result in critical damage or demise. In a single incident in December 2021, refinery staff have been uncovered to methanol, a flammable and poisonous gasoline, as a result of defective tools. In one other, hearth suppression tools had not been shortly repaired. Fines for the infractions have been comparatively small, totalling about $50,000 since 2016.

The power final went by a serious upkeep operation, usually required each 5 years, in 2019.

Knowledge from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics present 25 individuals have been killed in incidents at American oil refineries over the previous decade.

The US Chemical Security and Hazard Investigation Board, which oversees industrial accidents, has additionally despatched a workforce to Toledo to research. Along with the deaths, the incident led to the discharge of sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, two poisonous gases, and important property injury, it mentioned in a preliminary assertion on Monday.

BP mentioned it was a conducting “an intensive investigation” and “co-operating with investigations performed by regulatory businesses.” It added that the refinery had been shut down safely and remained offline.

OSHA advised the FT it had as much as six months to finish its investigation.