BP fined £32.5m over oil refinery blast

The fine is the largest penalty issued in the US Occupational Safety & Health Administration's (Osha) history.

US Secretary of Labour Hilda L. Solis said the size of the penalty reflected BP's "disregard for workplace safety".

She said: "This agreement achieves our goal of protecting workers at the refinery and ensuring that critical safety upgrades are made as quickly as possible.

"The size of the penalty rightly reflects BP's disregard for workplace safety and shows that we will enforce the law so workers can return home safe at the end of their day."

BP denied it ignored safety concerns, insisting it significantly improved the safety of its operations at Texas City over the last five years.

In addition to paying the fine, BP Products North America Inc agreed to take immediate steps to protect those now working at the refinery, allocating a minimum of 321m to this end.

In September 2005, Osha cited BP for a then record 13.5m as a result of the fatal explosion.

The parties then entered into an agreement that required the company to correct deficiencies.

In 2009 Osha said it found that although the company made many changes related to safety, it failed to fulfil several important terms of the agreement and cited BP for "failure to abate" violations with penalties totalling the 32.5m that BP has now agreed to pay.

The company said yesterday it reached a settlement to resolve 270 of 709 citations that Osha issued to it.

BP contested the citations but both parties agreed to settle the matter.

About 170 people were injured in the explosion in Texas City, south of Houston, on March 23 2005.