BP: bad pipe caused Texas refinery blast
HOUSTON (Reuters) – BP Plc.
fire on Thursday at its massive Texas City, Texas refinery
appears to have been caused by a bad pipe.
It said a preliminary inspection found “evidence of
internal cracking” in a thick steel pipe located between a
compressor and heat exchanger in the third largest U.S.
refinery, where 15 people died in an earlier blast on March 23.
The company, in a release put out late on Friday, said it
would conduct a “full metallurgical analysis” to understand why
the pipe failed on Thursday.
No one was hurt in the explosion, but it cut crude oil
processing at the 460,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery by
70,000 bpd, reduced gasoline output by 35,000 bpd and boosted
crude oil prices by 63 cents a barrel to $60.57 a barrel on the
NYMEX.
The company blamed the March 23 accident on employees
failing to follow proper procedures, but labor union officials
attributed it to bad design and management.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board has
been investigating the March 23 blast and said on Friday it
would look into whether there are any links between the two
explosions.