BP to pay record $50 million criminal fine: sources

By Chris Baltimore

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Thursday will announce a record $50 million criminal penalty against London-based BP Plc for a massive explosion at its Texas City refinery that killed 15 people in 2005, sources familiar with the deal said.

The fine for the refinery explosion would be the biggest criminal penalty levied under the Clean Air Act, eclipsing a $34.7 million criminal fine that Refrigeration USA paid in 1997.

Under the deal, expected to be unveiled by federal officials in Washington and Houston, BP will also have to pay a record $303 million civil fine to settle unrelated charges that it manipulated U.S. propane markets in 2004.

The Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency said they will hold a news conference at 1:00 p.m. EDT.

Officials from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, FBI and Department of Transportation's pipeline safety regulator are also expected to attend.

BP is facing a raft of federal charges, including manipulation of U.S. propane markets in 2004 and a pipeline leak at its Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska in 2006.

At the news conference, officials are expected to unveil an unrelated deal where BP will pay $303 million to settle civil price-fixing charges brought by federal investigators related to propane market manipulation in 2004.

That fine would be the largest imposed by the CFTC, and double the previous record $150 million levied against Japanese trading giant Sumitomo Corp. in 1998 for illegal copper trading.

In 2003, BP paid the New York Mercantile Exchange $2.5 million in fines related to improper crude oil trading practices.

(Additional reporting by Tom Doggett)