Originally posted by Erwin Seba - Reuters - September 23, 2009
HOUSTON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - BP Plc (BP.L) (BP.N) has requested more time to meet the terms of an expiring agreement with the federal government to improve safety at its Texas City, Texas, refinery, where an explosion killed 15 workers and injured 180 others in 2005, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said on Wednesday.
"OSHA has received BP's petition for modification of abatement request, in reference to the company's 2005 settlement agreement, and is presently taking that request under advisement as part of its on-going inspection at BP," the agency said in a statement.
The British energy giant entered into the 2005 agreement with OSHA to settle worker safety rules violations the agency found after the March 23, 2005, explosion. The agreement expired on Tuesday.
A BP spokesman said the company remains committed to resolving safety problems at the refinery.
"We continue to work with OSHA through the appropriate processes to resolve any expressed concerns," said BP's Scott Dean. "This petition is part of that process. We believe we are in full compliance with our commitments."
In anticipation of the agreement's end, OSHA told BP in a letter last month that the Texas City refinery was failing to meet the terms of the deal because of a long list of uncompleted safety improvements.
"We believe that the failure to correct the issues addressed in this letter ... by Sept. 23, 2009, would constitute a failure to comply with the terms of the 2005 agreement and/or a failure to abate," OSHA wrote to BP's Texas City refinery manager on Aug. 3.
Among the items listed in the letter were needed alarms, instrumentation and overdue machinery and pipeline inspections.
No time frame was set for OSHA's decision on BP'S request, but the agency's statement took a stern tone.
"(Labor) Secretary (Hilda) Solis has made it clear that the Department of Labor takes worker safety very seriously, and that the Department will enforce the law to ensure such tragedies are avoided," OSHA said.
The 2005 settlement with OSHA included the payment of a $21.4 million fine to the agency.
The settlement does not spell out what steps OSHA can take to enforce compliance by BP beyond "appropriate action in the event it deems BP has not appropriately complied with the agreement in good faith."
Adherence to the OSHA settlement was made part of BP's probation after the company pleaded guilty in March to criminal charges stemming from the explosion brought by the U.S. Justice Department. BP also agreed to pay a $50 million fine.
An attorney who represented victims of the 2005 explosion said the U.S. government could change the terms of BP's probation, levy further fines, impose outside supervision of safety programs or possibly close the refinery, which is the third-largest in the United States.
"I'm not in favor of shutting a plant down if the plant is not a risk to the people who work there," said Brent Coon in a Wednesday afternoon conference call with reporters.
The Texas City refinery can refine 455,790 barrels of crude oil per day and accounts for 2.6 percent of the nation's refining capacity.
BP has also paid more than $2 billion to settle lawsuits from the explosion.
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