BP Texas Explosion
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Transcript of BP Texas Explosion
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The USA's third-largest refinery, with a processing capacity of 470,000 barrels per day of oil
Source courtesy: Internet
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The explosion on Wednesday 23-03-2005, afternoon at the BP (Research) plant in Texas City, Texas, outside Houston, killed more than 14 people.
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BP Texas City Fire & Explosion
• 14 fatalities and 170 injured;
• Biggest BP refinery covers 1200 acres and produces11 million gallons of petrol a day;
• Third largest refinery in US;
• Fire and explosion occurred in the isomerization unit of the refinery.
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The Isomerization Process
• BP Isomerization unit:– Isomerization process increases the Octane rating of
Gasoline by which straight chain HCs are converted to branched chain HCs;
– Raffinate splitter tower separates light & heavy gasoline components;
– Raffinate: the portion of the original liquid that remains after the other components have been dissolved by a solvent
– Raffanate consists of BTX, Hexane & Cycloheptane and are highly flammable
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Source courtesy: CSB Video animation
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What happened?• Raffinate splitter tower was overfilled with liquid
due to errors in instrumentation & flaws in start-up procedures;
• The tower was over heated, pressurized and pressure relief operated;
• HC flowed into the BD drum & stack;• HC overflowed through top of BD stack forming
a pool below; and• The vapour cloud formed resulted in a VCE.
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The animated sequence of events
CSB Animation Video6m15s
You can get this great video and animation from CSB ‘free of charge’ if you write to them
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Raffinate Splitter Blowdown Drum and ISOM Unit after explosion
BP Texas City ExplosionBefore and After
Source courtesy: Internet
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Source courtesy: Internet
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Source courtesy: Internet
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The devastating power of explosions!! It can virtually level anything. Only blast walls can mitigate the effects. Source courtesy: Internet
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Source courtesy: Internet
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Firefighers and rescue personnel search the rubble for victims following an explosion at the BP-Amoco plant in Texas City.
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BP Texas City ExplosionBP Fatal Accident Investigation
• Loss of Containment• Raffinate splitter start-up
procedure and applicaton of knowledge and skills
• Control of work and trailer siting
• Desgn and engineering of the blowdown stack
The report identified four critical areas:
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BP Texas City ExplosionBaker Report
The report identified numerous failings in equipment, risk management, staff management, working culture at the site, maintenance & inspection & general health & safety assessments.
• BP management had not distinguished between “occupational safety” & “process safety”
• Their metrics, incentives, and management systems focused on measuring & managing occupational safety & confused improving trends in occupational safety statistics for a general improvement in all types of safety.
• An employee survey showed that managers & white collar workers had a rosier view of process safety culture than blue collar operators and maintenance techs.
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BP Texas City ExplosionUS Chemical Safety Board Report
• The effectiveness of the safety management system at BP Texas refinery
• The effectiveness of BP North America’s corporate safety oversight of it’s refining facilities
• A corporate safety culture that may have tolerated serious longstanding deviations from good safety practice
An interim report cited serious concerns about:
• Cost cutting and a ‘cheque book’ mentality
• Failure of all levels of BP management including the board
The final report headlines two major issues:
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What went wrong?
• BP Management over-looked warning signs of a possible catastrophic accident;
• BP Management had a typical ‘Cheque-Book mentality’;
• Antiquated equipment design;
• Siting of occupied trailers near ISOM unit; and
• Human errors.
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Source courtesy: CSB Video animation
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Source courtesy: CSB Video animation
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Fines & Warnings ignored!!
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the refinery nearly $110,000 after two employees were burned to death by superheated water in September 2004.
• Another explosion forced the evacuation of the plant for several hours last March. Afterward, OSHA fined the refinery $63,000 for 14 safety violations, including problems with its emergency shutdown system and employee training.
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Key Lessons Learnt…
• Learn from organization memory;• If no accident has occurred till today, that
does not mean that no accident is going to happen!
• Monitor process safety performance using appropriate indicators;
• Invest sufficient resources to correct problems; and
• Maintain an open & trusting safety culture.
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Key lessons learnt
• Ensure that non-essential personnel & work trailers are located away from hazardous process areas;
• Ensure equipment & procedures are maintained up to date; and
• Carefully manage organizational changes and budget decisions to ensure safety is not compromised.