Federal safety investigators have proposed $169,000 in fines against Citgo Petroleum Corp.’s refinery in Lake Charles, La., on allegations of failing to protect employees from hazardous working conditions.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it issued Citgo three citations alleging willful failure to follow federal safety requirements and 12 citations alleging serious violations.
“Citgo Petroleum failed to follow OSHA’s process safety management standards,” said OSHA regional administrator Dean McDaniel. “In this case, it was fortunate that no injuries occurred.”
A willful violation is one in which federal standards are disregarded, while serious violations are those that the company should have known about and could result in death or serious injury, OSHA said.
The company, which has about 1,400 employees at the refinery, has 15 days to comply, request an informal review conference with OSHA officials or contest the citations and fine before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
A spokesman for Houston-based Citgo, which also has refineries in Texas and Illinois, did not return a call for comment.
Topics Louisiana Workers' Compensation
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
The $3 Trillion AI Data Center Build-Out Becomes All-Consuming for Debt Markets 
Active Tornado Season Expected in the US 
LA County Told to Pause $4B in Abuse Payouts as DA Probes Fraud Claims 
Chubb Posts Record Q4 and Full Year P/C Underwriting Income, Combined Ratio 
