Elite Gold Safety Award: Ferndale Refinery in Washington and Rodeo Renewable Energy Complex (RREC) in California were among the top 5% in the industry.

Elite Silver Safety Award: Billings Refinery in Montana and Los Angeles Refinery in California were in the top 10% of the industry.

“These awards are a testament to the dedication, leadership, and innovation demonstrated by our teams,” said Rich Harbison, Executive Vice President, Refining. “Being ranked at the top of our industry is an incredible achievement, and it reflects our unwavering commitment to safety excellence and supports our vision of world-class operations.”

More than 250 AFPM member facilities received the application for the safety awards; 17 safety professionals comprising the selection committee named the winners. 

AFPM is a leading trade association for U.S. refiners and chemical manufacturers. The awards are part of a comprehensive program developed by the AFPM Safety and Health Committee to promote safe operations in the refining and petrochemical industries. 

Employees from RREC, Ferndale, Billings and Los Angeles refineries accept safety awards at the annual AFPM conference in Austin, Texas.

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More than 60 leaders from 30 contract companies recently met for the annual Contractor Safety Forum hosted by Phillips 66 to share safety best practices and effective ways to strengthen safety leadership. 

Striving for continuous improvement.

Phillips 66’s total recordable injury rate (TRR) is 25 times better than the general U.S. industrial workforce and 2.5 times better than the U.S. oil and gas industry average, but serious safety incidents still happen. 

“People are our most valuable asset; therefore, it is essential that we partner with contract companies to elevate all workers’ technical skills and safety leadership to reduce the likelihood of highly consequential incidents,” said Todd Denton, Senior Vice President, HSE and Field Operations Support.

Preparing the next generation of safety leaders

Rich Harbison, Executive Vice President, Refining, said that the changing workforce has created an urgent need to adapt, evolve and innovate.

“A well-trained workforce that executes work safely with precision and quality will be essential to being globally competitive,” he said, adding that training is about fostering an individual’s deep understanding, resulting in their commitment to safety and pride in their work.

“Ultimately, partnering to invest in a pipeline of skilled, safety-minded talent for our industry makes us all safer,” said Denton, “and that’s the most important reason to do this.”

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Sweeny Refinery Emergency Response Security Team Lead Ronnie Thompson, Sweeny Refinery Heavy Equipment operators, and Midstream Field Technician James Christian provided response assistance to the accident at State Highway 35 and FM 1459 in Brazoria County. Christian was on the scene as a member of the Sweeny Fire & Rescue volunteer department.

The 18-wheeler was overturned in a steep ditch with the driver pinned inside. Emergency responders used a heavy-duty wrecker for more than an hour to try to extract the driver, but they were unsuccessful. Emergency responders reached out to Thompson to request assistance of a crane to get the vehicle upright. Sweeny Refinery crane operators were on the scene within 10 minutes of approval. With the help of the crane, the driver was rescued and responsive. He was life-flighted to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston and is expected to recover.

Through the swift intervention of a trained network of local emergency responders, our Sweeny Complex Emergency Response Team and Sweeny Refinery Heavy Equipment operators, a man will return home.

“We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to our employees and the local responders for the critical role they played in this response and saving a life,” said Todd Denton, Phillips 66 Senior Vice President of Health, Safety and Environment and Field Operations Support. “This is a great example of how our ongoing training and collaboration with local response teams keeps our community safer.”

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“We were set up on the highway, and it just started raining fire,” said Bobby Smith, a lieutenant on the refinery’s Emergency Response Team and a member of the Stinnett Volunteer Fire Department. “The fire came over the top of us and hit the highway, and we had to retreat. That was probably the scariest moment because it was almost a total blackout because of the smoke.”

The Phillips 66 team responded as part of the Panhandle region’s mutual aid concept, in which the Borger Fire Complex and neighboring towns help each other to fight bigger fires and respond to major emergencies. The response to these blazes consisted of multiple dispatches and long hours — most first responders only got about two or three hours of sleep at a time.

In addition to a wildland firefighting team, the Borger Fire Complex includes several employees like Smith who serve as volunteer firefighters for small towns around the refinery. That put a number of them on the front lines of the Smokehouse Creek and Windy Deuce fires.

The larger Smokehouse Creek Fire eventually burned over 1 million acres — roughly comparable to the distance between New York City and Philadelphia. It killed two people and countless livestock, destroyed more than 500 structures and devastated grasslands needed by the region’s cattle ranchers.

Phillips 66 volunteer firefighters are trained and equipped to work alongside volunteer fire departments. They spend 16 hours each quarter on training, and employees can attend Phillips 66 Fire School held twice a year and taught by company instructors at Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service.

Though Smith, Tim Graham, Asa Woodfin and Josh Yates brought that knowledge and experience to bear in fighting the wildfires, they knew from the start that the blaze north of Stinnett, Texas on Feb. 26 was no ordinary event.

“The voice coming from our captain as she was trying to call out personnel was bone-chilling,” said Woodfin, a maintenance lead at the Borger Refinery and assistant chief for the Stinnett VFD. “I knew we were going to show up and have something big that we probably have never dealt with to that magnitude.”

Graham, the refinery’s Emergency Response Team leader and assistant chief for the Fritch VFD, said the firefighters often take a wait-and-see approach to wildland fires, allowing the blaze time to burn into an area where it can best be attacked.

“There is honor and commitment in not only going out the door knowing you can fight fires, but also in knowing that you’re going to have the best possible chance to come home from that fire,” said Graham.

The firefighting team’s approach to risk management extends to proactive measures. Because of the vast amount of grasslands and wildlands surrounding the Borger Refinery, the Borger Fire Complex performs controlled burns each year to reduce the risk of an uncontrolled fire.

But the Smokehouse Creek Fire was uncontrollable. “It was massive when we got there,” said Woodfin.

“We get big fires in our county,” said Graham. “It’s not unusual for us to get 400 or 500 acres or sometimes 1,000 acres, but 40 minutes into this fire, we were already at 10,000 acres.”

Smith recalled the view once the smoke lifted.  “As soon as that blew over and got a little bit clearer, we could see homes going up,” he said. “We basically went in and just started trying to pick out which homes we could try to save.”

Unlike some of his colleagues with strong firefighting backgrounds, Yates was new to firefighting when he joined the Borger Refinery as a Health and Safety specialist. “You rely on your teammates to learn tips and tricks,” he said. “Some of it’s learned on the job, and a lot of it is learned in training. I’ve learned everything from our Phillips 66 response team members here at Borger.”

The Borger Refinery, along with the ChevronPhillips chemical plant, are major employers in the area. When firefighters respond to a house fire, it likely belongs to someone who either works for Phillips 66 or ChevronPhillips, or to a family member who knows someone employed there, said Graham.

“It’s a good way to serve the community, especially out here where there aren’t big fire departments that can respond,” said Yates. “One of the local volunteer fire department slogans is ‘Neighbors helping neighbors,’ and that fits pretty well around here.”

Said Yates, “I am just trying to help my neighbors because I’m physically able to when others may not be.”

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For Sweeny, which lies 50 miles south of Houston, it was the third straight year winning AFPM’s highest honor. 

“Year after year, Phillips 66 shows up in AFPM’s top awards, and it’s a testament to the culture of our company that places importance on sending everyone home safe, every day, above everything else,” said Todd Denton, senior vice president, HSE, Projects and Field Operations Support.

AFPM’s Distinguished Safety Award is presented to eligible U.S.-based sites that demonstrate exemplary, long-term safety performance, program innovation and leadership.

Ponca City Refinery took Elite Platinum honors, which represents the top industrial sites among those who were in the running for a Distinguished Safety Award. Lake Charles Refinery secured Elite Gold, which recognizes facilities with safety performance in the top five percentile.

“I am extremely proud of our workforce at Sweeny, Rodeo, Lake Charles and Ponca City for maintaining the highest levels of operating excellence,” said Rich Harbison, executive vice president of Refining. “The national recognition is well deserved.”

In addition to the Distinguished Safety Award, Sweeny also garnered AFPM’s Innovation Award for the refinery’s annual Safety Days event, where workers get hands-on training by experienced coworkers on a variety of common safety systems within the refinery.

“Our employees own safety at Sweeny,” said Ben Way, Sweeny HSE manager. “We don’t have to ask them to be involved — they take the initiative. They are not afraid to speak up about ideas, safety issues or concerns.”

Rodeo was honored for a year in which it was converting its refinery into one producing renewable fuels. The Rodeo Renewable Energy Complex recently announced the start of commercial scale production.

“Our goal at Rodeo is to get everyone home safely,” said Jolie Rhinehart, Rodeo’s vice president. “Achieving that goal in a year is an exemplary achievement, but for Rodeo in 2023 it was a remarkable achievement.”

AFPM is a leading trade association for U.S. refiners and chemical manufacturers. The awards are part of a program developed by the AFPM Safety and Health Committee to promote safe operations in the refining and petrochemical industries. 

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Delivering the keynote speech at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Spring Meeting and 20th Global Congress on Process Safety, Lashier said that change should be seen in the context of what a recent Harvard Business Review article called “regeneration.”

“While regeneration is part of natural life, it often feels unnatural in business,” said Lashier. “That shouldn’t be the case. We should think of change as something that we’re part of, not something being done to us.”

Lashier was honored just prior to his remarks with the AIChE Government and Industry Leaders, or AGILE, Award. The award is given annually to individuals whose impact has made a unique difference in the marketplace or global community.

His remarks came as Phillips 66 navigates the energy “trilemma” of security, affordability and sustainability. To meet this challenge, Lashier said the industry must take a two-track approach: make fossil fuels cleaner and develop renewable energy in ways that make economic sense.

“We have to push the bounds of alternative energy while lowering the carbon footprint of the energy we need today,” he said.

None of this will be possible without safety, said Lashier. “Creating the future of energy and fostering a culture of problem solving and resiliency won’t happen if our processes and policies don’t keep people and our planet safe,” he said.

Lashier said a culture of safety must empower people to do three things: be aware when something isn’t safe, stop work and bring forward solutions. Indeed, he said, an engaged and empowered workforce is critical not only for safety, but also the energy transition.

“Let’s harness our collective energy and create meaningful change,” he said. “As I like to say to our employees, full speed ahead.”

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The Stewardship Award recognizes companies that safely transport a minimum of 500 loaded tank cars of hazardous materials with zero non-accidental releases. Phillips 66 safely shipped over 20,000 railcars of hazardous material on BNSF in 2022. This is the fourth year Phillips 66 has won this award.

“Our logistics teams and facilities are dedicated to operational excellence and safety when moving product to and from our refineries,” said Kim Head, VP, Global Supply Chain & Logistics. “These awards are a testament to the collaboration, hard work and commitment to our company values by our teams across the various business units.”

The Chemical Safety Excellence Award recognizes companies who ship more than 600 carloads of hazardous materials or hazardous waste without experiencing a non-accident release during the entire year. Phillips 66 safely shipped over 4,400 railcars of hazardous material on CSX in 2022. This is the fourth consecutive year Phillips 66 has received the CSX award.

“Safety is our top priority,” said Anil Nath, Manager, Rail Transportation. “We ship a wide range of Petroleum and Chemical products on rail. Our goal is to do everything in our control as a team to safely ship product, so it’s an honor to be recognized by our rail partners for all our safety efforts.”

Phillips 66 also won the Non Accident Release (NAR) Safety Award from Kansas City Southern and the Safe Shipper Award from Canadian Pacific Railway, for zero non-accidental releases in 2022 earlier this year.

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The achievement marks the first time an organization has won in the large-operator category for three consecutive years. The wholly owned midstream subsidiary of Phillips 66 received the award for its safety performance in 2022, which included a record-low three-year total recordable incident rate of 0.08, two consecutive years without a lost workday case injury, and its second-best TRIR.

“It’s no coincidence that Midstream continues to outperform in this space,” said Tim Roberts, Executive Vice President of Midstream and Chemicals. “It’s because of the Midstream employees who take safety seriously and have made it part of their core values and culture. This is their award.”

In 2022, Midstream built on its culture of operating excellence by strengthening employee and contractor safety performance, including increasing hazard awareness, adding employee safety improvement teams and enhancing the contractor safety program.

“It takes a village,” said Operations Center of Excellence Manager Stephanie Wilson, who accepted the award on the company’s behalf at API’s annual conference in Nashville. “At Phillips 66, some of our most transformative safety accomplishments have been, in part, the result of companies and individuals across the industry coming together to address industry challenges.”

API President and CEO Mike Sommers said API’s Pipeline Environmental Health and Safety Group uses the award to honor energy leaders developing new technologies and improvements to strengthen the industry’s license to operate. “Day in and day out, Phillips 66 Pipeline sets a higher standard for our industry with your team’s commitment to safety and development,” said Sommers.

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The Sweeny Refinery on the Texas Gulf Coast captured AFPM’s Distinguished Safety Award – the industry’s top safety honor – for a second consecutive year. Bayway Refinery in New Jersey, Borger Refinery in West Texas and the San Francisco Refinery’s Santa Maria Plant notched Elite Gold awards, and Ponca City Refinery in Oklahoma took home Elite Silver honors.

“Safety is at the core of everything we do at Phillips 66,” said Todd Denton, Phillips 66 Senior Vice President of Health, Safety and Environment and Field Operations Support. “Congratulations to our five safety award winners and their employees and contractors. The recognition by AFPM is a testament to their and the company’s steadfast commitment to the safety of our people and safe operation of our assets in our communities each and every day.”

Sweeny, which is located approximately 65 miles southwest of Houston, also garnered AFPM’s Innovation Award for the refinery’s Maintenance Area Safety Team’s work with The Hand Safety Tool Company, LLC^TM to test a new tool to increase safety.

The Distinguished Safety Award is presented to eligible U.S.-based sites that demonstrate exemplary, long-term safety performance, program innovation and leadership. The Elite Gold Award is AFPM’s second-highest safety honor, and it recognizes facilities with safety performance in the top 5 percentile. The Elite Silver Award recognizes facilities with safety performance in the top 10 percentile.

Sweeny was one of only three sites to earn a Distinguished Safety Award for 2022. Nearly 250 AFPM-member refining and petrochemical facilities were eligible to apply for the safety awards.

Chevron Phillips Chemical, the joint venture between Phillips 66 and Chevron, picked up Elite Gold awards for its Borger and Orange, Texas, sites, as well as Elite Silver honors for its Port Arthur, Texas, and Sweeny operations.

AFPM is a leading trade association for U.S. refiners and chemical manufacturers. The awards are part of a program developed by the AFPM Safety and Health Committee to promote safe operations in the refining and petrochemical industries. 

Sweeny’s award marks the seventh year in a row that a Phillips 66 refinery has captured the industry’s top honor.

“Earning the AFPM DSA is an outstanding feat for any facility; doing it for two years in a row is beyond remarkable,” Sweeny Refinery HSE Manager Ben Way said. “Our people should be enormously proud of this accomplishment and our commitment to safety. It’s a conscious decision our employees make every moment they spend time within our gates.”

Past Distinguished Safety Award winners from Phillips 66 also include Bayway (2019, 2017), Billings (2008), Borger (2019), Ferndale (2019), Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex (2020, 2019, 2016), Ponca City (2020, 2018) and Santa Maria (2020, 2019, 2011).

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“It’s a passion I never knew I had,” said Phillips, who took on the role of battalion chief in the company’s most recent hands-on emergency response training known as Fire School in College Station, Texas.

The exercise — where actual fires are put out in a live, controlled environment — is a unique experience, said Phillips, who got hooked on emergency response shortly after she was hired at Borger and went through training as part of an initial response team.

“It’s just fascinating being able to put out a fire, watching how it works and studying it,” she said.

Phillips 66 Corporate Emergency Response conducts Fire School twice a year to train new emergency response members and to refresh or advance the skills of experienced ones.

Special awards are given to participants who demonstrate dedication to continuous improvement, a positive attitude, great leadership and represent the Phillips 66 values of safety, honor and commitment.

Phillips received the Firefighter II Outstanding Student Award. She was the first woman to receive the accolade and was affectionately labeled the “den mother” of her group.

Other award winners at the Fall Fire School included:

• Kristopher Luera, Chevron Phillips Chemical — Firefighter I Outstanding Student Award
• Brian Scott, Bayway Refinery — Firefighter III Outstanding Student Award
• Brian Olsen, Crisis Management and Emergency Response, Bartlesville, Oklahoma — Incident Command Systems Outstanding Student Award

Longtime Phillips 66 emergency responders conduct the training at Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service’s facility. In addition to Phillips 66 employees, about five percent of Fire School students are from local fire departments that have mutual aid agreements with the company.

Senior Emergency Response Consultant Brandon Davis, who runs the Fire School program, said the students at the Fall Fire School impressed with “cool heads” during various situations such as simulated tank car and rail car fires.

“We train them for a worst-case scenario,” Davis said. “It’s a job you have to treat seriously.”

Phillips, who has attended two Fire School courses, said she is hoping to attend more and is grateful the company offers hands-on, specialized emergency response courses. “The more I train, the better I understand my refinery and the safer I make it for everyone,” she said.

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