American Petroleum Institute officials said a United Steelworkers union survey critical of refinery safety doesn’t represent the situation at all 149 US refineries.

“We think it’s an unfair portrayal of the industry as a whole,” said API spokeswoman Karen Matusic.
Matusic and API refining analyst Ron Chittim said the survey was based on responses from 51 union-represented US refineries and the survey itself cautioned its findings “cannot be generalised beyond those sites that participated in the survey.”
“It’s being portrayed that the entire industry has these problems,” Chittim said. “You shouldn’t say that. That’s not the way it is.”
The information gathered in the survey is also limited by the level of knowledge union officials would have about operations at a given refinery, he said.
Ninety per cent of the 51 refineries said they had at least one of the hazardous conditions that led to a deadly 2005 explosion at BP’s Texas refinery, according to the survey.
The 51 refineries equal 34 per cent of the 149 operating US refineries and 49 per cent of national refining capacity. An independent panel led by former secretary of state James Baker III said earlier the problems that led to the 2005 blast at BP’s Texas City refinery were not confined to that refinery or BP.