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US regulators are fining BP $3m after an inspection revealed more than 60 violations of safety practice at its refinery in Oregon.

“The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has found that BP often ignored or severely delayed fixing known hazards in its refineries,” says secretary of labour Hilda Solis. “There is no excuse for taking chances with people's lives. BP must fix the hazards now.”

OSHA alleges that BP committed 42 wilful violations and 20 serious violations. These include failures to provide adequate pressure relief for process units, failures to provide safeguards to prevent the hazardous accumulation of fuel in process heaters, exposing workers to injury and death from collapse of refinery buildings in the event of a fire, and failures of OSHA’s process safety management standard.

BP has been heavily criticised for its safety culture in the US. In October last year, OSHA slapped BP with a record $87m fine for failure to correct potential safety hazards at its Texas City refinery – where in 2005 an explosion killed 15 workers and injured 170 more. And then in December last year, a US jury ordered BP to pay $100m to ten workers who were exposed to toxic fumes at the refinery in April 2007.

BP operates and owns the refinery with Canadian company Husky Energy. They have 15 days to consider and contest OSHA’s findings.