BP Needs to Get its Act Together

Yesterday, a fire broke out at BP’s plant in Texas City.   According to BP, the refinery caught on fire around 1:30 p.m. in the residual hydrotreating unit, an area of the plant where oil is separated based on its boiling temperature.  The good news is despite flames that were over seven feet tall, the fire was successfully put out after an hour-an-a-half, and no one was injured from the blaze. If that was the case, their employees would have been wise to contact a Texas City industrial accident attorney like ourselves. This was not the first time a fire has broken out at this particular plant.   In 2005, a fire and explosion that began because of an overfilled blowdown drum killed 15 people and injured almost 200 other workers.   Because of that incident, BP faced numerous lawsuits, and the fire and explosion ultimately cost the company over $2 billion after compensating those affected, repairs, and lost revenue. Though yesterday’s fire does damage the company’s reputation, BP should consider themselves very fortunate that nobody was injured in this fire. Otherwise, they might have taken another serious financial hit.    However, considering the company was in the process of selling this particular plant to Marathon Petroleum Corp. for approximately $2.5 billion, maybe they have.