Texaco Fined $750,000 for Falsifying Test
Texaco Inc. was fined $750,000 by a federal judge Thursday for failing to conduct a critical safety test on an offshore oil platform near the Channel Islands and then falsifying records to make it appear that the test had been performed.
“If this thing had gone, it could have blown everyone to kingdom come,” U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon said in imposing the penalty and a separate $5,000 fine on former drilling supervisor Bobby R. Brogdin.
Federal prosecutors said the case represents the first felony conviction in the nation under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
The oil company and Brogdin, 48, of Bakersfield pleaded guilty in December to felony counts of violating the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act by failing to conduct one weekly safety test on equipment known as “blowout preventers.”
The equipment is designed to prevent an uncontrolled flow of oil, gas or water from a well through the use of large valves that seal off the well in the event of an explosion.
According to the criminal charges filed last month, Brogdin instructed crew members to resume drilling Dec. 29, 1986, after they had tried and failed for three hours to get at the blowout preventers to test them. The crew did not have all the tools they needed, according to prosecutors.
Reported Test Had Been Done
That evening, according to the charges, Brogdin told a driller to state in his report that the required test had been performed, explaining that if no test were performed, Texaco would be fined. The driller stated on the report, signed by Brogdin, that the valves had been tested for three hours.
Special Assistant U.S. Atty. Janet Goldstein said drilling continued for two full days without the required blowout test.
In her sentencing report to the court, Goldstein said government investigators found four occasions during November and December of 1986 in which a component of the blowout preventer was not tested.
Moreover, she said, Texaco was aware that rig supervisors were overworked and exhausted but did nothing to increase staffing on the company’s drilling platforms.
“Given these factors, it is not surprising that the violations described above occurred,” she said in her report.
However, she said, Texaco has since adopted written procedures to ensure that proper testing is performed, which include a requirement that all tests must be witnessed by a Texaco manager independent of the drilling department.
Texaco said the failure to perform the test was an “isolated” incident attributable to one employee, who has been fired. Texaco attorney Keate Worley said the company agreed to pay the fine to avoid the difficulty and expense of a trial.
“Our coastal environment is sensitive and must be protected. The federal safety violations in this case could have resulted in an environmental catastrophe. Fortunately, they did not,” said U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner.
