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The government awards contracts to companies with histories of misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations. In the absence of a centralized federal database listing instances of misconduct, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is providing such data. We believe that it will lead to improved contracting decisions and public access to information about how the government spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer money each year on goods and services. Report an instance of misconduct »

BP P.L.C.

Violations of Texas City Refinery OSHA Settlement

Date: 10/30/2009 (Date of Proposed Penalty Announcement)

Misconduct Type: Labor

Enforcement Agency: Labor – OSHA

Contracting Party: None

Court Type: Administrative

Amount: $63,627,000

Disposition: Fine

Synopsis: In October 2009, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued $87.4 million in proposed penalties to BP Products North America Inc. for the company’s failure to correct potential hazards faced by employees at BP’s Texas City, Texas, refinery. Safety violations at the refinery resulted in a massive explosion in March of 2005 that killed 15 and injured 170. The penalties were a result of BP’s alleged violations of a settlement agreement it entered into with OSHA in September 2005, under which the company agreed to corrective actions to eliminate potential hazards. For noncompliance with the terms of the settlement agreement, the BP Texas City Refinery was issued 270 "notifications of failure to abate" with proposed fines totaling $56.7 million. OSHA also identified 439 new willful violations for failures to follow industry-accepted controls on the pressure relief safety systems and other process safety management violations with proposed penalties totaling $30.7 million. In August 2010, BP agreed to pay a $50.6 million penalty for the failure to abate violations. (The Department of Labor discovered it had assessed 29 duplicate violations and adjusted the penalty to $50.6 million.) In July 2012, BP paid $13 million to resolve 409 of the 439 willful violation citations issued in October 2009.