Texas Refinery blast update. This is the one in which terrorism was ruled out before an investigation was made. There seem to be quite a few unanswered questions remaining, but lucky for them, the investigators seem to have been right about there not being terrorism involved — just gross, enormous negligence and incompetence. From AP, with thanks to Daniel Pipes:
May 17, 2005 – “Deeply disturbing” errors by employees led to the oil refinery explosion and fire in March that killed 15 workers, and some employees could be dismissed as a result, plant operators said Tuesday.
BP PLC, one of the world’s largest oil companies, released its interim report on the March 23 blast at the Texas City plant, which happened in a unit that boosts the octane level of gasoline when it was brought up to full production after a two-week shutdown for routine maintenance. More than 170 workers were injured.
“The mistakes made during the startup of this unit were surprising and deeply disturbing,” Ross Pillari, president of BP Products North America, said in a statement. “The result was an extraordinary tragedy we didn’t foresee.”…
“The core issue here is people not following procedures,” Pillari said, noting that the workers restarting the unit were experienced and trained. “If they had … followed procedures, the accident wouldn’t have happened.”…
The BP investigation determined that fluid level in a tower was 20 times higher than it should have been. Water or nitrogen in the tower when the unit was restarted may have caused a sudden increase in pressure that forced hydrocarbon liquid and vapor into the unit’s stack.
But investigators still don’t know what ignited the resulting vapor cloud. Earlier theories have suggested that sparks from a running truck engine could have been to blame.
Investigators found that supervisors seemed to be absent at times during the unit startup, and crews didn’t know who was in charge.
Also, any of six supervisors had a six-minute window in which they could have sounded an alarm to evacuate the area, but that alarm was never sounded, Pillari said. The decision, he said, denied other workers “the opportunity to get out of harm’s way.”…