Houston firm to pay $9.5M in penalties for safety violations, oil spill in Gulf

February 27, 2017

An oil industry services firm will pay $9.5 million in penalties for Gulf of Mexico safety violations and pollution from a 2012 offshore platform fire that killed three workers.

As The Associated Press reports, the penalties against Houston-based Wood Group PSN were announced Thursday by the U.S. Justice Department in Washington and U.S. attorneys in New Orleans and Lafayette, where civil and criminal cases have been playing out. The penalties followed plea agreements.

Wood Group will pay $7 million for falsely reporting that safety inspections were performed on Gulf of Mexico facilities over several years. Another $1.8 million in penalties are for discharging oil into the Gulf in the November 2012 explosion that killed three workers on a platform owned by Texas-based Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations. Wood Group also will pay $700,000 for community service projects.

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