HOUSTON: Indiana refinery workers got a surprise when they opened a crate of valves from India and found the remains of two small monkeys, which had been there for at least a year.
"Sadly in this age of global transport of goods and materials, sometimes wildlife finds its way into overseas shipments," BP Plc spokesman Scott Dean said on Thursday. "We believe this is just a sad case of the animals becoming trapped in a large shipping container."
Workers at BP's 405,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Whiting, Indiana, refinery found the remains on Wednesday in a large crate of valves, Dean said.
The 5-foot (1.5-meter) by 10-foot (3-meter) wooden crate, containing valves for a $4.4-billion upgrade of the refinery currently underway, was shipped from India and arrived at a Louisiana warehouse in June 2011, he said.
The crate was at the Louisiana warehouse until being shipped to the Whiting refinery a few weeks ago, he said.
"The animals were removed for safe disposal per U.S. Center for Disease Control guidance," Dean said. "There was never any threat to workers or the wider community."