Things went awry during the refurbishing of a Texas City, TX refinery when contractor Richard Liening was fatally electrocuted. At the time of the accident, Liening was working on a residual hydrotreater unit. The unit was idle, but had been reconditioned, and is used primarily to upgrade low-quality oil.

Unfortunately this is not the first accident to happen at the Texas plant. An explosion in March 2005 resulted in the death of 15 people and was the worst of numerous incidents on record. The year previous, two workers were fatally burned to death by superheated water, and just last year another contractor died after he was pinned against structural steel for an extended period of time.

Following the hurricane season of 2005, the refinery has been unable to operate at full strength, and usually only reaches half of it's capacity. Hurricane Rita has drastically affected the production, which once saw a 460,000-barrel-a-day maximum at one time. The refinery was completely closed following this tremendous storm, and it is expected to be back at full rate by the turn of the year.

BP emergency crews responded immediately to the accident and Liening was taken to the University of Texas Medical Branch. Galveston County Medical Examiner Stephen Pustilnik was slated to perform an autopsy today.

In a statement, BP said it was "deeply saddened by this accident and the resulting loss of life." Spokesman Ronnie Chappell said that his employer notified appropriate authorities, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

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Case and demographic characteristics for work-related injuries and illnesses involving days away from work compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor.