Ferocious Detonations at the BP Texas City Refinery

A series of explosions took place at the BP Texas City refinery on 23 March 2005 when a distillation tower, overfilled with highly flammable liquid hydrocarbons and over-pressurized, caused a geyser-like release of highly flammable liquid and vapour from the vent stack onto the grounds of the refinery. This catastrophic process accident took 15 lives, injured 170 others, and was the worst industrial accident in United States (U.S.) since 1990.
On the recommendation of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board who investigated the Texas City incident, BP Headquarters commissioned an independent safety review panel in October 2005 to make a thorough, independent and credible assessment of corporate oversight of safety management systems at the company's five U.S. refineries and of the company's corporate safety culture.
Lead by former US Secretary of State James Baker III, the independent panel released its 374-page report on 16 Jan 2007. In its report, the panel recommended a range of safety measures, including a strong safety audit system and an independent monitor to follow BP's progress for five years. The panel made the following 10 recommendations:

1. BP's executive management must provide effective leadership on and establish appropriate goals for process safety. They must articulate a clear message on the importance of safety, and match it with policies and actions.
2. BP should create a system to identify, reduce and manage safety risk.
3. BP should create a system to ensure that staff from top management to refinery workers should possess an appropriate level of process safety knowledge and expertise.
4. BP should involve relevant stakeholders to develop a positive, trusting and open safety culture within each U.S. refinery.
5. BP should define expectations and strengthen accountability for safety performance at all levels.
6. BP should provide more effective and better coordinated process safety support for the U.S. refining line organization.
7. BP should develop and maintain an integrated set of leading and lagging safety performance indicators to improve monitoring of its safety performance.
8. BP should create a system to audit safety performance at all U.S. refineries.
9. BP's Board should engage an independent monitor to report on BP's progress in applying these recommendations for at least five calendar years. BP should report publicly on its progress and safety performance.
10. BP should use the lessons learned from the Texas City explosion and the panel's report to transform the company into an industry leader in safety management.

Click HERE to read more about details about the incident in the Baker’s Panel Report.

(From MOM circlar,OSH Alert dated 12 February 2007)

Worker sandwiched between two trailers

(Extracted from MOM OSH Alert, dated 8 February 2007)

A fatal accident took place at a pre-fabrication yard where a worker was hit by a trailer that was in the process of being coupled to a prime mover. During the coupling process, the trailer moved backwards and hit the worker who was working at the rear of another stationary trailer about 1 metre away. This resulted in the worker being sandwiched between the two trailers.


Ministry of Manpower (MOM) urges all occupiers to take greater ownership to prevent workplace accidents. The Workplace Safety and Health (Risk Management) Regulations requires all workplaces to conduct risk assessments to identify the source of risks, actions that should be taken and parties responsible for doing so. Safe work procedures must be instituted, communicated and implemented to ensure the safety and health of workers involved.

Advisory Note – tips for prime mover coupling process
(Please note that the following advisory note is provided for the benefit of enhancing workplace safety and health and in no way should the information is to be misconstrued as implying any liability on any party)

Always check that the vehicular access path is free from any pedestrian.

Before any coupling operations, position a banks man to guide the vehicle and to prevent anyone from coming close to the trailer;

Ensure that the trailer braking system is properly maintained and effective;

Ensure that the prime mover reversing speed is slow and consistent;

Always choke the prime mover and the trailer rear wheels using proper wheel chokes to prevent accidental movement of the vehicle;

Always issue a warning signal to the surrounding workers before reversing the prime mover.