Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just give your workplace safety challenges to someone else? BP’s Texas City plant has provided the oil giant with many challenges. BP’s current solution? Sell it.
BP said it plans to sell its Texas City refinery where 15 people were killed and more than 170 were injured in a March 2005 explosion.
The plant has been very expensive for BP, including these costs:
- $1.5 billion to settle civil lawsuits related to the explosion
- $50 million in OSHA fines, with another $30 million yet to be negotiated, and
- more than $1 billion in improvements.
The oil company also faces a lawsuit filed by the Texas attorney general for illegally releasing contaminants from the plant.
In his business blog for the Houston Chronicle, Loren Steffy opines, “It certainly seems that BP can’t afford to keep operating the refinery, given that it seems unable to operate it safely.
“The new owners will have to recognize that they still need to invest in improving the safety culture at the refinery,” Steffy wrote.