The Galveston County Daily News

TEXAS CITY — A request by BP for more time to fix safety problems at its Texas City refinery was rejected last week by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the company confirmed Wednesday night.

The Reuters news agency was first to report the federal government’s rejection of BP’s request.

An OSHA review panel now will consider what steps the agency will take, which could include additional fines, granting an extension or the extreme measure of shutting down the nation’s third largest refinery.

In an August letter to BP, OSHA told the company it had failed to make agreed-upon safety improvements at the refinery after the March 23, 2005, explosions that killed 15 workers.

In the Aug. 3 letter to refinery manager Keith Casey, Mark R. Briggs, director of the agency’s Houston South Area Office, said that if specific improvements were not made by Wednesday, it “would constitute a failure to comply with the terms of the 2005 agreement and/or failure to abate” safety hazards at the refinery.

In an Oct. 15 letter to BP, Briggs rejected the company’s request for more time, saying the company failed to demonstrate it had made significant strides and could not specifically detail what measures had been taken to fix problems.

Sept. 23 marked four years since OSHA handed down a series of citations against BP for safety violations and levied a $21.5 million fine after its investigation into the 2005 blasts. The company and federal government reach an agreement that set a timeline for BP to improve conditions at the Texas City refinery.

The terms of a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice over environmental violations requires BP to adhere to its settlement with OSHA. The company also had paid a $50 million fine to settle the criminal charges.

BP requested more time in what OSHA called a petition for modification. OSHA was “taking that request under advisement as part of its ongoing inspection at BP,” spokeswoman Diana Petterson said. Agency spokeswoman Elizabeth Todd said BP had not asked for prior petitions for more time to meet OSHA’s demands.

Petterson also said there was no guarantee the request would be granted. An agency spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

BP said OSHA’s rejection “was not a surprise,” and maintains it has met all of its agreements with the agency and that the extension was to give the company time to address OSHA’s concerns.

“BP believes it has responded to all of OSHA’s concerns outlined to us in recent correspondence and is satisfied with the actions that we have taken in response to BP’s 2005 settlement agreement with OSHA,” the company said in a statement. “The next stage of our engagement with OSHA is for the various documents and the positions of each party to be further reviewed before an the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, where BP intends to demonstrate its compliance with its agreement with OSHA.

“From the outset of our communications with OSHA, we have recognized that no matter which decision the agency may reach, we remain committed to further enhancing our safety and compliance systems and achieving our goal of becoming an industry leader in process safety.”