The Galveston County Daily News

TEXAS CITY — Refinery problems BP spotlighted four years ago in a bid to save money could cost the petroleum giant even more now, if plaintiffs’ attorneys have their way.

As the second week of the second lawsuit in the deadly 2005 blasts continued Tuesday, jurors watched videotaped depositions of consultants hired by BP in its 2003 fight with the Central Appraisal District.

In one of them, Ventech Appraisal Services manager Robert Nall said the blowdown stack that caused the March 2005 blasts — which killed 15 and injured hundreds more — held a value of $7,314. That amount was also roughly what the 33.509 pounds of metal making up the stack would have been worth as scrap, Nall said.

The plaintiffs in the case are eight workers claiming injuries stemming from the explosions.

To win punitive damages, state law requires they show that BP knew the refinery was unsafe and did nothing about it.

BP saved about $12 million at the appraisal battle’s end, in 2004, when the appraisal district lowered its refinery’s value to about $600 million from about $1 billion.

However, plaintiffs’ attorneys are using the company’s four-year-old documents about decrepit facilities and past-due maintenance — including work needed on the stack that exploded — to argue that the company willingly fostered an unsafe environment to save money.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys have also shown documents both in the appraisal battle and in documents sent to state officials in which BP misidentified the stack as a flare.

Having a flare would have allowed gases to burn off before pressure built to the point of explosion.

BP’s defense team has maintained that, while BP had acknowledged responsibility for the blasts, the company neither was negligent nor did it willingly continue an unsafe work environment.

Most of the 3,000 lawsuits filed on behalf of those injured in the blasts have settled, and all fatal cases have settled.

The trial under way in the 212th State District Court in Galveston involves workers claiming injuries caused by BP negligence in the blasts.

In October, BP agreed to pay $50 million in fines as part of a plea deal that ended a federal criminal investigation into the blasts.

At the time, U.S. Attorney Donald DeGabrielle said the company’s plea acknowledged that, for six years, BP had “either defective or completely nonoperable or nonexistent safety processes in place to prevent this very thing.”