The BP Texas City Disaster – The Role of Organisational Structure

An explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery illustrates how an organisation’s structure can undermine the effective management of process safety risk. The Incident On 23 March 2005, a distillation column at BP’s Texas City refinery was overfilled, causing hydrocarbons to escape and subsequently ignite, resulting in an explosion. 15 people were killed and 180 injured. [ ]