BP avoids court showdown over explosion at US plant

BP has averted what looked likely to be an embarrassing courtroom showdown over its safety record, after agreeing an eleventh-hour settlement with the daughter of a couple killed in an explosion at its Texas City refinery last year.

Fifteen people died and more than 170 were injured when gas vapours ignited in March 2005, the worst industrial accident in the US for more than a decade.

BP will pay $34m (£17.8m) to community groups in the area, according to Brent Coon, a lawyer for Eva Rowe, whose parents died in an employee trailer parked near the explosion. Ms Rowe will also receive compensation and BP will make commitments to improve safety.

Ms Rowe was the last relative of those who died to refuse a settlement, saying she wanted a trial to expose cost-cutting decisions BP had made in the run-up to the accident.

BP set aside $1.6bn to cover legal bills and settlements. The company faced unlimited damages if the trial, for which jury selection was about to begin, found against it.

Ms Rowe, 21, said yesterday: "I wanted to help the community and make a difference for a lot of people, so it feels really good."

The burns unit at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and the chemical plant safety programme at Texas A&M University will each get $12.5m. The chemical plant safety programme at the College of the Mainland in Texas City will get $5m. St Jude Hospital, the favourite charity of Mr Rowe's parents Linda and James Rowe, will receive $1m, and $1m will go to a school in Louisiana, where Linda Rowe once taught.

Meanwhile, BP came under further pressure in Russia yesterday after criminal charges were initiated against one of the top managers at its TNK-BP joint venture for allegedly generating revenues for the firm from illegal corporate activities. The accusations come just days after prosecutors demanded that one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries be stripped of a key gas field development licence.

Western analysts have suggested the Kremlin is piling pressure on TNK-BP on behalf of the state-controlled Gazprom, which covets control of some of its assets.

Russia's Prosecutor General said yesterday it had opened a criminal investigation against the head of Rospan International, a gas-producing subsidiary of TNK-BP that has run into trouble for allegedly violating the terms of its licence.