BP admits plant-explosion charges

Oil giant BP formally entered a guilty plea in a deal with US prosecutors over the deadly explosion at its Texas City plant in 2005.

However, a judge said she would listen to blast victims and their lawyers, who have been highly critical of the agreement, before deciding whether or not to accept the plea.

Texas City plant manager Keith Casey entered a guilty plea on behalf of London-based BP, saying the company had failed to protect its workers.

“The result is a terrible tragedy that could have been avoided. We deeply regret the choice we made and are profoundly sorry for the harm we caused,” said Mr Casey, who was not the plant manager at the time of the blast.

US District Judge Lee Rosenthal was originally set in November to accept the oil giant’s guilty plea and the $50m US (€33.8m) fine that goes with it. The company would also be on probation for three years for its role in the explosion.

However, several lawyers for victims of the blast, which killed 15 people and injured more than 170 others, objected, calling the proposed fine “trivial”. They also said the deal did not push to improve safety at the plant or fully detail BP’s history of safety breaches.

The judge agreed to let them voice their complaints and delayed her decision on whether to accept the plea.

“I think this plea agreement stinks,” said Eva Rowe, whose parents, James and Linda Rowe, were killed in the blast. Ms Rowe told Judge Rosenthal about how her mother’s body had to be identified through DNA testing because it was decapitated and badly burned.

“If the purpose of punishment is to give incentive to the wrongdoer to change their ways and do the right thing, this agreement utterly fails,” Ms Rowe said.

Mr Casey told Judge Rosenthal that BP has made the refinery a safer place by spending more than $1bn US (€676m) in upgrades and doubling the amount of training.

However, the family of William Joseph Gracia, a worker killed in January in an accident at the plant, told Judge Rosenthal that their loved one’s death was a sign that BP had not done enough to improve safety since the 2005 blast.

“Your honour, I ask that you punish BP in such a way that will encourage real change,” Robbie Gracia, the worker’s wife, said in a statement read by her daughter.

“For a multi-billion dollar company, a 50 million dollar fine is nothing more than a light tap on the wrist. Please reject this plea deal. Please force BP to be responsible.”

Judge Rosenthal will hear from additional victims, as well as from their lawyers, lawyers for BP and prosecutors, before making her decision.

She could do one of three things: accept the plea, reject it or order a pre-sentence report, further prolonging the case.

Such reports are standard in criminal cases and offer a judge a wide range of information, such as a defendant’s criminal history, that is used in determining a final sentence.

BP and the Department of Justice, which does not want such a report to be done, have defended the plea agreement, saying it is the harshest option available in assessing criminal punishment for the blast.

The fine and plea were part of an October agreement by BP to pay $373m US (€252m) to settle various criminal and civil charges.

In defending the plea agreement, BP has said it has accepted responsibility for what happened, worked hard to improve safety at the plant and has fully co-operated with the criminal investigation.

BP has said it has paid more than $1.6bn US (€1.08bn) to compensate victims.

The explosion at the plant, about 40 miles south east of Houston, occurred after a piece of equipment called a blowdown drum overfilled with highly flammable liquid hydrocarbons.

The excess liquid and vapour hydrocarbons then were vented from the drum and ignited as the isomerisation unit – a device that boosts the octane in petrol - started up. Alarms and gauges that were supposed to warn of the overfilled equipment did not work properly.

The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, one of several agencies that investigated the accident, found BP fostered bad management at the plant and that cost-cutting moves by BP were factors in the explosion.