Thursday 10 June 2010

BP Oil Spill: Shocking BP Memo says Safety Too Expensive - The Daily Beast

The Daily Beast has obtained an internal BP document showing that before BP's last fatal accident in 2005, safety measures were ignored in favor of saving money. The company estimated the value of employees’ lives at $10 million each. The company disgustingly demonstrates this using a "Three Little Piggie" metaphor:


image credit The Daily Beast
A document showing the "optimal" (hand-written note & arrow) selection of a solid-structured work environment (example: bricks; use in reality: trailers), but not a "blast-resistant" structure, which would have saved lives in the 2005 BP Texas City Refinery explosion.


"At Texas City, all of the fatalities and many of the serious injuries occurred in or around the nine contractor trailers near the isom unit, which contained large quantities of flammable hydrocarbons and had a history of releases, fires, and other safety incidents. A number of trailers as far away as two football fields were heavily damaged."

"Last year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration levied the largest monetary penalty in its history, $87 million, for "failing to correct safety problems identified after a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers at its Texas City, Texas refinery."


Hmm...makes you think. If BP hasn't made the necessary changes after five years, could there be parallels to the Gulf case?

Full article here (The Daily Beast)

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