Liability, awards & settlements

26. 7, refinery explosion,settlements

US: BP took a $700mn charge in the second quarter for fatality and personal injury compensation claims associated with the incident at the Texas City refinery on 23 March, according to the company's earnings release. Some of the charge will go to pay for legal and medical bills and to pay compensation for the 15 dead and 170 injured workers. BP has agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars to the families of the deceased. BP previously blamed the explosion on a failure by employees to follow procedure but has since said it was working closely with the US Chemicals Safety Board, which believes faulty monitoring equipment was also behind the accident. BP was not insured for the explosion and faces a cost of $40mn to investigate the events and a $200mn bill to repair the damage. In addition, it was estimated BP would suffer $200mn of operational losses each quarter until the unit returns to full capacity.