Chemical Safety Board marks 20th anniversary of Texas City refinery explosion

Washington — Chemical facilities have made significant advancements in safety in the 20 years since a deadly BP refinery explosion in Texas City, TX, the Chemical Safety Board says.

A new CSB report commemorates the anniversary of the March 23, 2005, incident, which killed 15 people and injured 180 others. The explosion and fire were caused by a massive hydrocarbon release during the restart of a hydrocarbon isomerization unit, the board concluded in a 2007 final report.

In addition to revisiting the events that contributed to the explosion and the resulting safety recommendations, the board reflects on how the chemical facility industry has taken “valuable lessons” from the blast to implement “meaningful improvements” in process safety management.

“There have been significant advancements in trailer-siting safety, the creation of a worker fatigue standard, the development and tracking of performance safety indicators, and an increased focus on process safety management at refineries and chemical facilities, to highlight just a few,” the report states.

CSB has produced multiple safety videos on the incident. In 2022, the agency released interactive training on OSHA’s standard on process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals (1910.119) based on agency findings from the fatal explosion.

“The BP Texas City disaster is one of the worst industrial accidents in recent U.S. history,” CSB Chair Steve Owens said in a press release. “As a result of the CSB’s investigation of this terrible incident and the more than two dozen safety recommendations that the CSB made, a number of important steps have been taken to improve practices at refineries and other chemical facilities.

“But more still needs to be done to protect workers and communities. The CSB is committed to ensuring that a catastrophe like this never happens again.”