Proposed Penalty on Exxon for February Explosion Incident is $566600

In addition, a half-dozen of the serious violations also were classified as willful because CAL/OSHA found the company failed to take action to fix known hazardous conditions at the refinery and intentionally failed to comply with state safety standards.

“Signed-Citation-Documents.1042440.pdf” >19 citations to ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Co. for workplace safety and health violations following an investigation into the February 18 explosion.

“The United Steelworkers union at the time of the explosion said the Torrance incident served a reminder of the lopsided policies in the downstream energy industry”.

Out of the 19 citations, the agency has classified 18 of them as serious, as any violation could cause injury or even death. Four contractors were hospitalized with minor injuries.

“Hazards such as obstructed exit access can have devastating consequences if employees are unable to reach emergency exits in a fire or other incident, and falling stock can result in contusions and broken bones”, said Robert Kowalski, OSHA’s area director in Bridgeport. The hydrocarbon release from prominent gasoline producing equipment, fluid catalytic cracker (FCC), ignited explosion in refinery’s electrostatic precipitator, which injured four workers and decontaminated eight of them.

Cal/OSHA’s investigation concluded that a 2007 safety review uncovered concerns about flammable vapor leakage in the electrostatic precipitator.

ExxonMobil spokesman Todd Spitler said the company is reviewing the citations.

The FCC unit is no longer working since nine years before the blast. That meant the oil company could not monitor pressure buildup in that piece of machinery.

That misstep led to the explosion, said Clyde Trombettas, statewide manager and policy advisor for Cal/OSHA’s Process Safety Management Unit. The California-OSHA also found that Exxon did not keep any written procedures for putting the unit in “hot standby” mode. Consumer Watchdog and billionaire Tom Steyer have called on state lawmakers to set requirements for inventory levels that prevent shortages such as has troubled Exxon Mobil at the Torrance facility.

“Exxon Mobil is surprisingly one of the most proactive refineries”, Trombettas said. In March 2011, a worker who was also working on the unit lost six teeth and suffered a fractured jaw after a motor in a pump that he was attempting to shut down exploded. Cal/OSHA issued three serious and five general citations in those cases.

Both the February 18 explosion and the August. 6, 2012 Chevron refinery fire in Richmond have led to proposed improvements in petroleum refinery regulation.