AmericasOffshore

Wood Group PSN fined $9.5m for safety violations and pollution from Black Elk platform explosion

Houston-based oil industry services firm Wood Group PSN will pay $9.5m for safety violations and for pollution from the 2012 Black Elk platform fire, according to the Associated Press.

The lion’s share of the penalties is $7m for falsely reporting safety inspections on facilities in the US Gulf of Mexico that were never performed.

There was also $1.8m for an oil spill that resulted from the Black Elk platform explosion and fire in November 2012. That explosion killed three Filipino welding workers at the facility 72 miles off Grand Isle, Louisiana.

Wood Group must also pay $700,000 for community service projects.

These penalties were announced by the US Department of Justice in Washington and by lawyers in New Orleans and Lafayette, Louisiana.

Black Elk and Grand Isle Shipyards still face manslaughter charges relating to the explosion.

Donal Scully

With 28 years experience writing and editing for newspapers in the UK and Hong Kong, Donal is now based in California from where he covers the Americas for Splash as well as ensuring the site is loaded through the Western Hemisphere timezone.
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