BackgroundBP was founded in 1908 as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. They changed their name to British Petroleum in 1954 and merged with Amoco in 1998. (BP Public Website, 2010) “The Texas City Refinery is BP's largest and most complex oil refinery... It was owned and operated by Amoco before the merger. from BP and Amoco. (Michael P. Broadribb, 2006) Throughout their history, many accidents have been caused by negligence and failure to follow safety precautions. Sadly, many lives have been cut short or seriously injured. My research will focus on the Texas City oil refinery explosion of 2005. I will attempt to examine the ethical implications that surrounded this disaster before and after the event and suggest what BP could have done to prevent the incident at that time and in the future. What happened? “March 23, 2005, at 1:20 p.m. , the BP Texas City refinery suffered one of the worst industrial disasters in recent U.S. history. The explosions and fires killed 15 people and injured 180 others, alarmed the community and resulted in financial losses exceeding $1.5 billion. (US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, 2007) Many small and large decisions and oversights led to the incident. Behind all of these specific actions or inactions is a blatant disregard for the handling of safety violations and procedures that had been reported to BP years before this event. The use of outdated equipment and budget cuts also contributed to the circumstances that allowed this accident. Progression of events leading to the incident “On February 21, 2005, the Splitter was shut down for a planned temporary outage... -up (March 22), middle of paper...... posted August 8, 2010 , on BP's public website: http://www.bp.comBP Corporate Document. (2005). BP public website. Retrieved August 6, 2010 from Code of Conduct: http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/STAGING/global_assets/downloads/C/coc_en_full_document.pdfMichael P. Broadribb, C. (2006). Institution of chemical engineers. Accessed July 26, 2010 on IChemE: http://cms.icheme.org/mainwebsite/resources/document/lpb192pg003.pdfPierre Thomas, Lisa A. Jones, Jack Cloherty and Jason Ryan. (May 27, 2010). BP's dismal safety record. Retrieved August 6, 2010 from ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bps-dismal-safety-record/story?id=10763042U.S. Office of Investigation of Safety and Chemical Risks. (March 20, 2007). Final investigation report. Accessed July 26, 2010 from the US Chemical and Safety Board: http://www.csb.gov/assets/document/CSBFinalReportBP.pdf