Lied to BSEE, gets probation and community service

MAY 26, 2015 — Race Addington, 49, of Houston, TX, was sentenced May 20 for making false statements to Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) inspectors in relation to the veracity of blowout preventer testing on an offshore oil and gas platform.

U.S. District Judge Helen G. Berrigan sentenced Addington to one year probation and 40 hours of community service.

BSEE says  that it will work with the Department of Justice and other federal agencies to ensure that individuals who falsify records concerning the integrity of critical safety components are held accountable for their actions.

Addington, a well site supervisor for a platform in the Gulf of Mexico, was sentenced for presenting a fabricated blowout preventer pressure test chart to the BSEE inspectors on or about November 28, 2012 with the expectation that it would be a passing test and the inspectors would not find the platform to be in non-compliance for failing to properly test the blowout preventer system.

On December 6, 2012, during an investigation of the veracity of the blowout preventer test by BSEE, Addington lied and told BSEE investigators that the BSEE inspectors had mistakenly retrieved the wrong pressure chart from the files, when in truth and in fact he knew that he had personally presented a fabricated chart to inspectors as the actual test record for the platform’s blowout preventer system.

The Department of Interior’s Office of Inspector General, BSEE’s Investigation and Review Unit, and the Environmental Protection Agency investigated the case.