The US Chemical Safety Board last night blamed a fatal explosion at BP's Texas City refinery on cost-cutting and poor risk management and called for tougher standards for the industry.
CSB Chairwoman Carolyn Merritt blamed the explosion, which killed 15 people and injured 180 others, on "aging infrastructure, overzealous cost-cutting, inadequate design and risk blindness."
The March 2005 explosion, the worst industrial accident in over 10 years, was caused when a distillation tower at the Texas plant was overfilled, triggering the emergency release of flammable liquid into a blowdown drum.
The 1950s-era drum overflowed, sending a liquid geyser-like release into the atmosphere where it ignited. The CSB has said that BP executives were aware of equipment problems and procedures well before the explosion at the refinery, the third-largest in the United States.
The board recommended in a report that refineries eliminate the use of blowdown drums for containing liquid and vapor produced during operational upsets and use flare systems to burn excess vapors.
"We want the industry to wake up," Ms Merritt said. "Unfortunately, the weaknesses in design, equipment, programs and safety investment that were identified in Texas City are not unique either to that refinery or to BP."
"We are calling on the industry to eliminate the type of atmospheric vent that caused the flammable release."
Ms Merritt said the CSB had relied on companies to take the lead in safety issues, but added the BP investigation had uncovered a cost-cutting trend over the past decade that cut experienced employees, training programs and safety efforts aimed at keeping workers safe.
"Many people in positions of corporate responsibility tell me they are deeply concerned about a perceived erosion of safety culture and process safety management over the past decade," she said.
BP's own 2003 internal safety audit citing safety problems at Texas City and other BP sites was known to BP's executive management and to "someone at the board of director level," said the CSB's lead investigator, Don Holmstrom. He declined to identify executives or directors by name.