The First Facility Management Blog

This is relatively old news, but it’s sad all the same. A Texas refinery blast earlier this year (March) was actually caused by employee failure.

According to the Dow Jones Newswire,

the accident was caused by mistakes that took place before and during the startup of the refinery’s isomerization unit, which produces octane boosters for gasoline.

The mistakes began with the overheating and overfilling of a section of the isomerization unit, [Ross] Pillari [president of BP Products North America] said.

“If ISOM unit management had properly supervised the startup, or if ISOM unit operators had followed procedures or taken corrective action earlier, the explosion would not have occurred,” he said.

When the night shift turned over the startup to the day shift at 6 a.m., there wasn’t an adequate exchange of information, and the exchange was not supervised, Pillari said. The supervisor of the unit didn’t arrive until about 7:15 a.m. and left at 10:30 a.m.

“The day shift supervisor was absent during several critical times,” Pillari said.

Under pressure in the column, the hydrocarbon liquid and vapor rushed into an attached blow-down drum, overfilling it. Had the spill been routed to a flare, the severity of the accident might have been reduced.

The accident killed 15 and injured 170, according to this report.