BP Oil Spill Timeline
2001
January 2001—BP paid $10 million to resolve allegations it violated the Clean Air Act at 8 of its refineries
February 2001—Minerals Management Service (“MMS”) fined BP $20,000 for workplace violations resulting in serious injury to an employee
August 2001—Worker killed at BP Texas City refinery
September 2001—Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) fines BP $141,000 after an explosion killed three workers at BP’s Clanton Road facility
2002
January 2002—MMS fined BP $20,000 for a safety violation
May 2002—MMS fined BP $23,000 for a workplace safety violation that resulted in a worker having his hand injured from an electrical shock
May 2002—Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation required BP to pay a $150,000 fine for pipeline leaks
September 2002—MMS fined BP $39,000 for missing 13 monthly tests of an oil low level sensor
2003
January 2003—BP fined $70,000 by MMS for a faulty fire water system
January 2003—BP fined $80,000 by MMS for bypassing pressure safety relays
July 2003—MMS fined BP $20,000 because a subsurface safety valve was blocked out of service
2004
February 2004—MMS fined BP $25,000 because they had bypassed the oil rigs gas detections systems
March 2004—Explosion at the UU4 unit at BP Texas City
May 2004—Worker falls to his death inside a tank at BP Texas City
July 2004—MMS fined BP $190,000 for safety violations that resulted in a fire.
September 2004—Two workers are killed and a third is severely injured during a steam release at BP Texas City
2005
March 2005—15 people are killed in an explosion at BP Oil Refinery in Texas City
May 2005—Worker dies at BP Cherry Point Refinery
July 2005—Explosion and fire at BP Texas City
September 2005—OSHA cited BP for 296 egregious willful violations associated with the March 23, 2005 explosion and fined BP $21 million dollars
2006
April 2006—OSHA fines BP $2.4 million for safety violations at the Toledo, Ohio refinery
October 2006—MMS fined BP $25,000 because operations were not performed in a safe and workmanlike manner
February 2006—Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (“TCEQ”) fined BP $130,625 for unlawful releases of harmful pollutants at its Texas City refinery
March 2006—Major oil leak in Prudhoe Bay Alaska from a corroded pipelines operated by BP
July 2006—Worker dies at BP Texas City refinery
2007
March 2007—US Chemical Safety & Hazard Board concluded that the Texas City disaster was caused by organization and safety deficiencies at all levels of the BP Corporation
April 2007—Chemical release at BP Texas City
June 2007—Worker dies by electrocution at BP Texas City.
August 2007—Diver killed at BP Cherry Point Refinery
October 2007—BP agreed to pay a $50 million fine and plead guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Air Act and will serve three years of probation for the Texas City refinery explosion
October 2007—MMS fined BP $41,000 for various safety violations
October 2007—BP pled guilty to a criminal violation of the Clean Water Act and paid a $20 million fine related to two separate oil spills that occurred in the North Slope in March and August of 2006
2008
January 2008—BP employee dies BP Texas City
2009
April 2009—Whistleblower files lawsuit against BP for breaking federal laws and violating their own internal procedures by failing to maintain crucial safety and engineering documents related to the Atlantis Deepwater Drilling rig
October 2009—OSHA fines BP an additional $87 million dollars for their failure to abate the violations from the March 23, 2005 explosion
December 2009—Texas jury returned a $100 million award against BP on behalf or workers injured in a 2007 chemical release
2010
April 2010—OSHA fines BP $2 million for willful safety violations at the Toledo Ohio refinery.
April 2010—Explosion and fire destroys BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig, releasing millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico
