About five years after the 2005 Texas City refinery explosion which claimed the lives of 15 workers, BP (NYSE:BP) will pay a record fine of $50.6 million for its failure to correct known safety hazards.
This isn't the end of the Texas City story for BP though, as this only accounts for 270 of the 709 citations issued by OSHA at the facility.
OSHA and BP are in the midst of negotiating over another set of fines which could go as high as $30 million.
The U.S. has called for fines of $81.3 million altogether at the factory, which with these two sets of fines would fall just under that number.
Under fire for its overall poor safety record, BP is increasing the pace of the improvements they're making at the refinery, which will cost up to $500 million through 2016.
Independent experts will verify the work that it is indeed an improvement to safety and completed as specified.
According to OSHA, the company will face an “unprecedented level of oversight.”
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