Oil refinery fined £5 Million

An international refining company and a contracting company working on the oil refinery have been fined a total of £5.1 Million and ordered to pay costs of over £1.0 Million after an explosion, in 2011, killed four workers and seriously injured another. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found the explosion was most likely to have been initiated by the ignition of a highly flammable atmosphere within the tank, during what should have been a routine emptying operation in preparation for further cleaning and maintenance. The investigation also found there had been longstanding failures within the refinery safety management systems and as a result the risks posed by flammable atmospheres were not understood or controlled.