BP Unit Slapped With $40M Fine For Air Pollution Charges At Indiana-Based Refinery

BP plc BP subsidiary, BP Products North America Inc., has been charged a “record-setting” penalty of $40 million by the U.S. Justice Department for hazardous air emissions at its Indiana-based Whiting oil refinery.

• The regulatory body indicted BP Products North America for violating regulations in curbing benzene emissions in wastewater and emissions of other harmful pollutants.
• “This is the largest civil penalty ever secured for a Clean Air Act stationary source settlement,” the U.S. Justice Department said.
• As part of the settlement, BP Products North America will make capital investments worth more than $197 million.
• The company will install one or more permanent benzene strippers to reduce benzene in wastewater streams leading to its lakefront wastewater treatment plant.
• The subsidiary separately also agreed to undertake a $5 million supplemental environmental project to curb diesel emissions in the communities surrounding the Whiting Refinery.
• The measures, once adopted, are expected to curb benzene production by an estimated 7 tons per year, other hazardous air pollutants (HAP) by 28 tons per year, and other volatile organic compound emissions (VOC) by 372 tons per year.
• BP Products North America will also install 10 air pollutant monitoring stations to monitor air quality outside the refinery fence line.
• “This settlement sends an important message to the refining industry that the United States will take decisive action against illegal benzene and VOC emissions,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

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Price Action: BP shares are up by 1.62% to $36.12 Wednesday at publication.

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