British Petroleum and The Delay of Maintenance Case Analysis
Assignment 3 – British Petroleum and the Delay of Maintenance
By Avaninder Gill
Review the Main Features of the Case British Petroleum, now known as simply BP, is a multinational oil and gas company that is headquartered in London, England. On March 23, 2005, a series of massive explosions devastated one of the largest British Petroleum refineries located in Texas City. The blast rattled windows in downtown Galveston, 20 miles away and was even felt in Houston, 35 miles distant. Reports indicated that 15 people had been killed and well over 150 were injured, many of those seriously burned. A BP spokesperson addressed the media by explaining how the explosion had occurred while an “isomerization unit of the plant was being brought back on stream to full production after having been shut down for annual inspection and repair” (Hosmer, 49). As the families of those killed in the explosion mourned their losses, BP pledged to a “long and intensive investigation to determine the cause of the explosion” (Hosmer, 49). These promises were cut short when accounts of prior problems at BP refineries began to present themselves. Reports revealed that a year ago from the day of the most recent explosion, a blast occurred at the same processing unit of the Texas refinery. No deaths or injuries resulted, but a U.S Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigation indicated violations of 14 standard operating procedures. Furthermore, merely a week prior to the Texas City explosion, BP was reported to have settled a large lawsuit claiming that their company had failed to; properly maintain huge storage tanks and improperly falsify the maintenance records of those very storage tanks. A far more condemning report in the September of 2005 found hundreds of safety violations related to a venting system at the isomerization unit, seen to not have been working properly. As a result, the OSHA imposed a probationary period, in
By Avaninder Gill
Review the Main Features of the Case British Petroleum, now known as simply BP, is a multinational oil and gas company that is headquartered in London, England. On March 23, 2005, a series of massive explosions devastated one of the largest British Petroleum refineries located in Texas City. The blast rattled windows in downtown Galveston, 20 miles away and was even felt in Houston, 35 miles distant. Reports indicated that 15 people had been killed and well over 150 were injured, many of those seriously burned. A BP spokesperson addressed the media by explaining how the explosion had occurred while an “isomerization unit of the plant was being brought back on stream to full production after having been shut down for annual inspection and repair” (Hosmer, 49). As the families of those killed in the explosion mourned their losses, BP pledged to a “long and intensive investigation to determine the cause of the explosion” (Hosmer, 49). These promises were cut short when accounts of prior problems at BP refineries began to present themselves. Reports revealed that a year ago from the day of the most recent explosion, a blast occurred at the same processing unit of the Texas refinery. No deaths or injuries resulted, but a U.S Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigation indicated violations of 14 standard operating procedures. Furthermore, merely a week prior to the Texas City explosion, BP was reported to have settled a large lawsuit claiming that their company had failed to; properly maintain huge storage tanks and improperly falsify the maintenance records of those very storage tanks. A far more condemning report in the September of 2005 found hundreds of safety violations related to a venting system at the isomerization unit, seen to not have been working properly. As a result, the OSHA imposed a probationary period, in
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