Years of cost-cutting and lack of investment left BP’s Texas City refinery vulnerable to the catastrophic fire that killed 15 workers two years ago, said the Chemical Safety Board (CSB), America’s leading chemical accident investigator.

In a damning report into BP’s safety culture, the CSB found that: budget pressures impaired safety performance; internal audits and studies revealed serious safety problems at Texas City, including lack of maintenance and training; the audits were shown to executives in London, including John Manzoni, the board director in charge of refining.

The CSB’s lengthy report into the Texas City fire found that organisational and cultural deficiencies at all levels of BP’s hierarchy were responsible for America’s biggest industrial disaster since 1990.

The report also criticised Osha, America’s occupational safety regulator, for insufficient oversight of Texas City. The CSB called for “comprehensive inspections” and urged Osha to adopt a new standard requiring companies engaged in major organisational change, such as mergers or reorganisations, to conduct a process safety review.

Citing internal BP documents, including safety audits, e-mails and surveys commissioned by BP, the CSB concluded that a cut of 25 per cent in fixed spending ordered by Lord Browne of Madingley, BP’s chief executive, after the takeover of Amoco, played a role in leaving Texas City “vulnerable to a catastrophe”.

Carolyn Merritt, the CSB chairman, said: “Beginning in 2002, BP commissioned a series of audits and studies that revealed serious safety problems at the Texas City refinery, including a lack of necessary preventative maintenance and training. These audits and studies were shared with BP executives in London, and were provided to at least one member of the executive board.” In its report, the CSB refers to a study in 2002 initiated by the new Texas City director, who observed that the plant’s infrastructure was “in complete decline”. The study, which was shown to executives in London, found that “there were serious concerns about the potential for a major site incident due to the large number of hydrocarbon releases [over 80 in the 2000-2001 period]”.

The fire in March 2005 was caused by a release of flammable vapour during the start-up of an isomerisation unit. A follow-up study, conducted later in 2002, found that “the current integrity and reliability issues at [Texas City] are clearly linked to the reduction in maintenance spending over the last decade”.

The CSB’s report goes much further than the Baker panel’s study of BP’s US refineries in linking the accident to budget cuts. The Baker panel noted that BP had not always provided adequate resources to ensure process safety.

BP yesterday indicated its “strong disagreement with some of the content of the CSB report, particularly many of the findings and conclusions”.

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