October 16, 2006
U.S. safety board chides BP Texas refinery again
HOUSTON (MarketWatch)-A large July 2005 fire at BP PLC’s (BP) accident-plagued Texas City refinery was caused by poor mechanical integrity oversight at the refinery, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazardous Investigation Board said Sunday.
The fire occurred after a BP contractor, JV Industrial Companies, swapped two elbows from a heat exchanger that JV didn’t know were made of different types of steel and weren’t interchangeable. While alloy steel is resistant to the effects of high-temperature hydrogen, carbon steel isn’t. Over time, the wrongly-placed carbon steel elbows began to crack, finally giving way on July 28, 2005, when the elbow cracked, venting hydrogen gases that ignited.
BP should have conducted x-ray testing on the pipes to ensure that the steel could have withstood exposure to the high-temperature hydrogen used in the unit, according to CSB investigator John Vorderbrueggen in prepared remarks.
“The CSB found that BP Texas City refinery procedures did not require a simple positive material identification test during equipment maintenance,” Vorderbrueggen said. “As a result, merely disassembling and reassembling piping components during maintenance resulted in an unacceptable hazardous system modification.”
The July 2005 fire followed a March 2005 explosion at Texas City that killed 15 workers and injured hundreds more. The two-hour July fire injured one worker and caused $30 million in property damage, the CSB said Sunday. Although less serious than the March incident, the July fire and a subsequent fire Aug. 10, 2005, rattled regulators and local officials.
In August 2005, the CSB urged BP to convene an independent panel to review safety at BP’s U.S. refinery. That panel, led by former Secretary of State James Baker, is expected to report on its findings in late November.
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