$373 Million: BP Not 'Beyond' Prosecution

Oct. 25, 2007 — -- After a massive government investigation into a propane price-fixing scheme and environmental infractions, oil and gas giant BP has agreed to pay $373 million in fines and restitution.

The Justice Department announced Thursday that BP admitted to creating a price-fixing scheme designed to manipulate propane markets, and to environmental violations related to a 2005 refinery explosion in Texas and crude oil leaks in the company's Alaskan pipeline system.

One plea stemmed from the Justice Department's prosecution of a March 2005 explosion at BP's Texas City, Texas, oil refinery, which killed 15 workers and injured more than 170 others, becoming one of the worst industrial accidents in recent memory.

BP will pay $50 million in criminal fines for violating the Clean Air Act.

"An investigation revealed that the explosion was caused by improperly released vapor and liquid," Acting Attorney General Peter Keisler explained at a Thursday press conference, "and that several procedures required by the Clean Air Act to reduce the possibility of just such an explosion were either not followed or had not been established in the first place."

Another $12 million in fines, plus another $4 million to be paid to each the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the state of Alaska, addressed a violation of the Clean Water Act, and a BP subsidiary's criminal liability for crude oil leaking from the company's pipelines into the Alaskan wilderness.

"BP committed serious environmental crimes in our two largest states, with terrible consequences for people and the environment," said the Environmental Protection Agency's Granta Nakayama.

But the bulk of the fines and restitution payments -- approximately $353 million -- are part of an agreement to defer prosecution on charges that BP conspired to violate the Commodity Exchange Act and commit fraud.

Investigators said BP traders stockpiled propane, and then hoarded the supply, forcing the market prices to skyrocket.