After BP’s Texas City, Tex., refinery blew up in 2005, killing 15 workers, the company promised to fix the safety issues that caused the blast.
In 2006 a oil pipeline ruptured and spilled 200,000 gallons of crude oil over Alaska’s North Slope, the oil giant once again vowed to fix the problems.
In 2007, BP settled a series of criminal charges, including Texas City, and agreed to pay $370 million in fines.
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Regulators are investigating a whistle-blower’s allegations of safety violations at the Atlantis, one of BP’s newest offshore drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.
In 2009, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found more than 700 violations at the Texas City refinery — many concerning faulty valves. The agency fined BP a record $87.4 million, which was more than four times the previous record fine, also to BP, for the 2005 explosion.
Another refinery, in Toledo, Ohio, was fined $3 million two months ago for “willful” safety violations, including the use of valves similar to those that contributed to the Texas City blast.