Posted on 05/09/2007 1:04:50 PM PDT by lizol
Lithuanian investigators accuse 2 Americans of negligence in refinery fire
By Associated Press Wednesday, May 9, 2007 - Updated: 11:45 AM EST
VILNIUS, Lithuania - Two U.S. citizens running Lithuania’s Mazeikiu Nafta oil refinery have been accused of negligence that led to a major fire last year, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Refinery CEO Paul Nelson English and his deputy, Barton Lee Luck, have been charged with negligence, prosecutor Stasys Pleinys said, and both men have been barred from leaving the country pending the result of the investigation.
English and Luck were not immediately available for comment.
Fire broke out in the refinery’s diesel complex in October, causing $48.5 million in damage and affecting sales.
"Experts determined that English and Luck are culpable for delays in urgent maintenance works," Pleinys said.
Investigators found that a worn pipe had cracked, which then leaked highly explosive oil-products that sparked an explosion.
Before the accident, Russia’s Yukos and the Lithuanian government sold a combined 83 percent in Mazeikiu Nafta to Poland’s PKN Orlen for $2.3 billion. The Polish company changed most of the refinery’s senior personnel, but English and Luck stayed.
Since the fire, the Baltics’ only refinery and Lithuania’s largest corporation has been unable to restore its pre-fire working capacity.
Well, if they’re guilty they’re guilty, if not, then not. That’s why there are courts.
As long as the trail is impartial without undo outside influence they deserve what happens to them.
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