Texas City is a place that smells like salt, sweat, and heavy industry. If you drive down Highway 146, the skyline isn't made of skyscrapers; it’s made of silver fractionating columns and flare stacks. For decades, the name bp in texas city was synonymous with this landscape. It was a powerhouse. A titan. It was also the site of one of the darkest days in American industrial history.
Honestly, most people think BP is still there, running the show. They aren't. Not since 2013. But the ghost of their tenure still haunts the safety manuals and boardroom meetings of every refinery on the Gulf Coast. You've probably heard the broad strokes of the 2005 explosion, but the reality of what happened—and what the facility is today—is way more complex than a simple "disaster story."
The Day the Sky Turned Orange
March 23, 2005. It was a Wednesday.
The isomerization unit (ISOM) was being restarted. This is a finicky process where you're basically rearranging molecules to boost gasoline octane. Everything that could go wrong did. A raffinate splitter tower was overfilled—not just a little, but massively. We’re talking about a column meant to hold a certain level of liquid being pumped so full that hydrocarbons started geysering out of a blowdown stack.
Then came the spark.
It likely came from an idling diesel truck nearby. The resulting explosion killed 15 people and injured 180. The most tragic part? All 15 who died were in trailers located too close to the unit. They weren't even working on the ISOM; they were just in the wrong place because of poor site planning.
Why it actually happened
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) didn't just blame a faulty valve. They blamed the culture. Years of budget cuts. A "check-the-box" mentality toward safety. Don Holmstrom, who led the CSB investigation, noted that the refinery had been "starved" of resources for years leading up to the blast.
- Cost-cutting: Following the BP-Amoco merger, there was a mandate to cut fixed costs by 25%.
- Maintenance: Vital equipment, like level sensors and alarms, were known to be wonky but weren't fixed.
- Fatigue: Operators were working 12-hour shifts for weeks on end. Mistakes become inevitable when you're that tired.
Who owns the refinery now?
By 2011, BP had enough. Between the Texas City disaster and the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, the company’s reputation in the U.S. was in tatters. They needed cash to pay for the Macondo settlements and a fresh start.
In 2013, Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) bought the Texas City refinery for about $2.5 billion. It’s now known as the Galveston Bay Refinery.
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If you walk through those gates today, you won't see BP logos. You'll see Marathon’s. It’s currently the second-largest refinery in the United States, trailing only the Motiva plant in Port Arthur. It can process about 593,000 barrels of crude oil every single day. That's a staggering amount of fuel.
Is it safer today?
Kinda. Mostly, yes.
Marathon poured billions into upgrades. They ripped out the old atmospheric blowdown stacks—the very things that turned the 2005 leak into a geyser of fire—and replaced them with modern flare systems.
But refinery work is never 100% safe. Just recently, in March 2025, the CSB released a 20th-anniversary report on the 2005 blast. They pointed out that while industry standards for trailer siting and pressure relief have improved, many refineries still struggle with "organizational drift." That’s the slow, quiet return to old, lazy habits.
The Environmental Cleanup That Never Quite Ends
Even after selling the plant, BP couldn't just walk away from the mess. In July 2025, a massive settlement regarding the Clean Air Act was finalized. This wasn't about the explosion, but about how the plant handled benzene and asbestos during the BP years.
BP had to cough up roughly $170 million for these violations. Most of that—over $150 million—is earmarked for fixing sewer lines and process units to stop benzene from leaking into the air. Benzene is nasty stuff; it’s a known carcinogen linked to leukemia. The EPA estimates these fixes will cut 6,000 pounds of benzene emissions every year.
BP in Texas City: The Legacy
The presence of bp in texas city changed the world, but not in the way they wanted. Because of what happened here, we have:
- API RP 752/753: These are the industry "bibles" now for where you can and cannot put trailers. You'll never see a crowded office trailer sitting 150 feet from a high-pressure unit again.
- Process Safety Indicators: Before 2005, companies only tracked "personal safety" (slips, trips, and falls). Now, they track "process safety" (leaks, near-misses, and pressure spikes).
- The Baker Panel: This was the first time a major corporation had its entire safety culture stripped naked and analyzed by outsiders, led by former Secretary of State James Baker III.
What you can do with this info
If you live near Texas City or work in the industry, stay informed. The EPA's "Echo" database allows you to look up the Galveston Bay Refinery's current compliance status. Knowledge is your best protection.
If you’re an investor or a safety professional, study the 2007 Baker Report. It’s 2026, and the lessons in that document are still the gold standard for how not to run a high-hazard business. Don't let the 20-year gap fool you; the mechanics of corporate negligence don't change much.
Next Steps for You:
Check the current air quality ratings for Galveston County via the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) website. If you’re looking for work at the site, ensure you’ve completed your Basic Plus safety training at the Safety Council of the Texas City Area, as their standards have significantly tightened since the transition from BP to Marathon.