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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That’s the philosophy behind Phillips 66’s new learning and development program, which is designed to help its workforce learn faster and build leadership capabilities earlier in their careers.

“Our company’s success depends on high performance,” said Patti Celestine, Phillips 66 general manager of Learning and Development. “We’re excited to transform learning and development into a distinctive strength for Phillips 66 and provide employees with a consistent learning experience.”

The company held its inaugural Day of Learning in early November to kick off the renewed approach and encourage employees to discover new learning opportunities. Celestine describes how Phillips 66 is pivoting to a learning culture and investing in employees in new ways to build vital skill sets for the future.

How does investing in learning and development impact Phillips 66’s vision of being the integrated downstream leader?

Building the capabilities of our smart and highly skilled workforce is essential for Phillips 66 to compete and win in a dynamic marketplace. By equipping our people with the right resources, tools and learning structure, we can help them keep their skills fresh and better adapt to rapid change. Embedding employee development into our culture reinforces how we drive performance, pursue excellence and deliver strong business results.

Tell us more about Phillips 66’s Day of Learning. What inspired the event?

Employees want to be with a company where they believe they can make an impact and grow. This Day of Learning was a first step in giving employees visibility to the company’s commitment to continuous skill building, individual growth and career development. Whether an employee works in a terminal, refinery, trading office, headquarters, research center or any other location, we designed this day for them.

What experiences did employees have at the Day of Learning? And what resources are available for people who couldn’t attend?

The event featured diverse learning content for employees at all levels and locations. Virtual learning sessions showcased internal functional experts and generated interest in future development offerings. We also held in-person events at various refineries and our Houston and Bartlesville offices. Topics included developing a winning mindset, communicating with confidence, managing your career and leveraging your strengths. We also invited employees to make a learning pledge by identifying one area of learning focus in the coming months. To extend the impact of our Day of Learning, employees can access an interactive learning hub with exclusive event content.

How is Phillips 66 fostering a learning culture beyond the single-day event?

It’s about helping everyone push go on their development journeys, grow in their careers and thrive at work. We empower employees to take charge of their learning journeys, beginning with onboarding and continuing with technical, professional and people leader development. We offer in-classroom, on-demand and immersive learning resources to help employees achieve their goals. These include skill- and business-unit-specific training programs and experiential learning through developmental assignments. We also provide peer-to-peer learning through online hubs, which allow people with similar roles, challenges and responsibilities to collaborate and continuously learn in a virtual environment.

How will Phillips 66 keep its learning and development programs agile to meet industry and market needs in today’s rapidly changing business environment?

We continually evaluate, monitor and look for ways to improve our programs by collaborating with internal and external subject-matter experts. We expect to add and replace offerings in our curriculum over time to stay aligned with our company’s strategic priorities. We will invest in the right technology to provide better learning experiences for our employees.

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“We believe providing energy improves lives,” said Lashier. “We power human progress. Full stop. That’s what we do. And it’s what we’re going to do now and in the future.”

Among others to speak at the forum, which was held in The Woodlands, Texas, about 35 miles north of Houston: Jeff Miller, President and CEO of Halliburton and Steve Kean, Kinder Morgan CEO.

Lashier described the challenge facing the oil and gas industry as multifaceted: How do we provide the world the affordable, reliable energy that it needs while meeting the challenges of energy security and climate change?

“That’s what we’re asking ourselves every day,” said Lashier. “We’re rising to the challenge because we’re problem solvers. We all know that ultimately the solutions the world needs are more likely than not to come from this industry and the people who drive it.”

Lashier said the answer to the problems facing the world today isn’t a choice between fossil fuels and alternatives but rather a mix of oil and gas, alternative energy and technologies, such as carbon capture and storage. “It’s all hands on deck,” he said. “It’s all of the above. It’s all energy and it’s all important.”

While the oil and gas industry is focused on the right things, said Lashier, “the world doesn’t always recognize that.”

“We are in good faith working hard to make sure the world has what it needs,” he said. “And that’s why I tell people, if you want to help the planet, if you want to improve people’s lives, if you want a real purpose in your career, work in the energy industry.”

Added Lashier, “Better yet, come work for us.”

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The Roxana, Illinois refinery today can produce a higher percentage of in-demand fuels thanks to major enhancements to its hydrocracker. The upgrade to the process unit, which included the installation of two 3-million-pound reactors, was completed earlier this year and leaves Wood River well positioned to help Phillips 66 meet present and future needs for liquid fuels in the U.S.  

“The addition of the two new reactors allows Wood River to better optimize low-value feedstocks, further strengthening the refinery’s operations,” said Ray Rigdon, Vice President of Wood River Refinery, which is owned by WRB Refining LP, a 50-50 joint venture between Phillips 66 and Cenovus.  

Rigdon said the refinery is using available hydrogen capacity to increase clean-product yield.  

In a refinery, the hydrocracker converts vacuum gasoil, an intermediate feedstock, into higher-value products — mainly middle distillates such as diesel, jet fuel and kerosene — through pressure and heat and the use of catalysts and hydrogen.  

The new reactors optimize the hydrocracker’s clean-product yield by providing increased reactor volume and catalyst. The upgrade also allows the refinery to run lighter feedstocks through its fluid catalytic cracker, another key process unit, resulting in an improved yield of gasoline-range material.   

“It’s a win-win across the board,” Wood River Technical Services Manager Wesley Tindall said.  

The project, a major undertaking by the refinery and the Major Projects team at Phillips 66, tallied more than 800,000 work-hours without a recordable incident.   

The project was first envisioned in 2017. In 2020, the reactors embarked on a global trek before arriving at the refinery, traveling more than 8,400 miles over 51 days from Venice, Italy, to Wood River, which is north of St. Louis on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. Two 900-ton strand jacks lifted the reactors into place in early 2021. The full project had a total execution phase duration of 40 months.   

“I am proud to see this major project complete and start up safely, on schedule and under budget,” said Mike Wirkowski, Vice President of Major Projects at Phillips 66. “It was a joint team effort from start to finish with a dedicated refinery and project team.”  

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Five names. Five outstanding careers at Phillips 66 and its heritage companies. Each reaching or passing the 50-year mark this year.  

Hammons, a West Region Account Manager for Phillips 66 Lubricants, marked 52 years with the company in June after starting at a Union 76 gas station in Portland. His career has included some memorable treks, such as flying above the Arctic Circle and seeing grizzly bears in Kenai, Alaska. He also sold a lot of products along the way, including bringing two new marketers from zero to more than 1 million gallons per year. 

“I got to go places and do things that I never thought I would,” said Hammons, who played defensive end with the University of Oregon Ducks, leading to his playful moniker. 

Kent, a Maintenance Administrative Assistant at Wood River Refinery, reached her 50-year anniversary in April. She started her career in an era when women were not allowed to drive into the refinery, then owned by Shell. “We had to have somebody come and pick us up at the main gate. It was a man’s world back then,” she said.  

Decades later, Kent said Phillips 66 affords countless opportunities to all its employees, including a good income and friendships that feel like a family. “This is a wonderful place to work. It has been good to me. It has been good to a lot of people,” she said.  

Papillion, a Mechanic and Craftsperson at the Los Angeles Terminal, will reach his 50-year anniversary on August 16. His various roles at the company include a stint driving petroleum barrel trucks and rolling containers weighing about 450 pounds.  

“I wouldn’t change a single day,” he said. “I learned a lot from every year and every job.” 

Jay started working at Phillips 66 in Bartlesville as a utility man after serving in the Army, including more than a year in South Korea near the Demilitarized Zone. He worked for five decades in several roles, including as a mechanical pipefitter, before retiring in May. 

“Fifty years is a long time. But for me, it does not seem like a long time,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of fun. I’ve done a lot of work. I’ve seen a lot of things.”  

Mason, who helps run the Phillips Petroleum Company Museum after a career in various technology-related jobs, completed 54 years with the company in January.  

As a divorced mother of three children, she said her job provided her family with many opportunities, such as her daughter receiving a Phillips 66 college scholarship. 

“I am loyal to this brand. It sustained me and my children,” she said. “I don’t even want to think of where I’d be if I hadn’t gone to work for Phillips.”  

Meet the Fabulous Five

Herman Papillion: ‘You can go as high and as far as you want to go’

Evelyn Kent: ‘Come to work with an open mind’

Dennis ‘Duck’ Hammons: ‘My word is my bond’

Sandy Mason: ‘If it’s a challenge, I like it’

Phillip Jay: ‘Get involved with your community’

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When a nearby utility substation flooded, forcing the city’s water treatment plant to run on generator power and risk disrupting supply, Emergency Response Team Lead Ben Adelman, I&E Superintendent Adam McAbee and Metalworkers/Craftsmen JT Sannon, Jim Hoiland and Andrew Reiter wasted no time answering the call to assist. They leveraged refinery equipment and set up a pumping system to remove water from the area and flow it back into the Yellowstone River.

Their actions allowed the water treatment plant to return to its main source of power and remain operational, even as the Yellowstone River, which winds through Billings and is a stone throw’s away from the refinery, reached record-high levels from the 500-year flooding event.

“We responded to the call and showed up ready to work. We did what we needed to do to keep 150,000 people from losing their water supply,” Adelman said of the response.

Record rainfall in June and rapid snowmelt caused rivers in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho to rise, washing away roads, bridges and other infrastructure and causing widespread flooding in the region. The floods forced Yellowstone National Park to close for over a week because of washed-out roads.

The City of Billings escaped with minimal damage, unlike other towns in the region. The Billings Refinery sustained operations throughout the flooding event in part thanks to the action from the Phillips 66 employees coming to the aid of the local public works department to ensure reliable water supply to the community and site.

“The Billings Refinery has a long history of outstanding relations with the City of Billings and the community in general,” Maintenance Manager Mike Baker said. “We are proud of the partnership we have with our neighbors and are pleased that some of our skilled craftsmen and talented emergency response personnel were able to help the city avert a potential water supply disruption.”

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“We are experts in making and moving the energy of today, and we are motivated by the opportunities we see all around us to optimize our businesses to thrive as energy systems evolve,” wrote Phillips 66 Chairman and CEO Greg Garland and President and COO Mark Lashier in a joint letter introducing the report. “That’s why we are strengthening our core businesses, expanding our digital capabilities, using technology to improve operating efficiencies and transforming our organization to increase productivity.

“We have ambitious goals, and we’re taking deliberate steps to achieve them.”

The company assessed its operations against numerous criteria for its 2022 report, including, for the first time, those set forth by the Global Reporting Initiative, an independent organization that provides the world’s most widely used standards for sustainability reporting. The results offer a transparent look at the company today — with refineries in the U.S. and Europe, 22,000 miles of pipeline systems under its management, a petrochemical joint venture and a global network of fueling outlets that distribute its energy products — and how it plans to thrive tomorrow and beyond.

Some of the tangible steps taken by the company toward its 2030 and 2050 greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, which both were announced within the last 12 months, include:

• Introducing the company’s new Emerging Energy organization, which is focused on renewable fuels, batteries, carbon capture and hydrogen
• Advancing its Rodeo Renewed project, which upon completion will be one of the world’s largest renewable fuels facilities
• Making history at its Humber Refinery, the first U.K. refinery to make and supply sustainable aviation fuel at scale
• Investing in the U.S. battery supply chain to enable electric-vehicle growth
• Establishing a joint venture to build a network of low-carbon hydrogen fueling stations in Europe

The report, published on Phillips66.com, includes the company’s position on climate change and an updated analysis, as well as disclosures based on the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework.

To view Phillips 66’s 2022 Sustainability Report, go to phillips66.com/sustainability.

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The company announced Tuesday that current President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Lashier will become President and Chief Executive Officer on July 1, while Greg Garland will remain as Executive Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors. The news comes just shy of the 10-year anniversary of Phillips 66’s debut on the New York Stock Exchange as an independent company.

“Today’s announcement is a culmination of a thoughtful, thorough and purposeful succession-planning process undertaken by our Board of Directors,” Garland said in an email to employees. “The timing makes sense, given our move into the energy transition. We have accomplished great things over the past 10 years and now we need to tackle the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. Mark is the right person for the job.”

Lashier, who has more than 30 years of industry experience, is a trusted leader with a proven track record of delivering solid business results and safety and operational excellence. His four-year tenure at the helm of Chevron Phillips Chemical, the petrochemical giant in which Phillips 66 owns a 50% stake, is marked by both ambitious expansion projects and his steady hand through the tumult of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A chemical engineer who holds 13 patents in the U.S., Lashier is committed to innovation.

“Greg’s leadership in fostering a culture of operating excellence and financial strength will benefit us for decades,” Lashier said. “That foundation is critical as we face the opportunities and challenges of the next 10 years.

“We intend to take on the energy transition, and we intend to win. And to do that, we need to tap into the full potential of every employee so that we’re more competitive. I fully believe we will do that, and we will do great things together.”

Garland said that in his role as Executive Chairman, he will focus on ensuring the board has the right mix of talent and experience to govern Phillips 66 as it continues to evolve.

“We need to make sure we set our board up to be very successful in the future and to be able to address the challenges and opportunities we see in the future,” said Garland, who will serve as Executive Chairman until he retires in 2024.

Since Garland assumed the CEO role in May 2012, Phillips 66 has recorded many notable achievements.  The company has:

• become an industry leader in operating excellence, including safety, reliability and environmental stewardship;
• pioneered disciplined capital allocation in the energy business, targeting 60% of cash flow back in the business while returning 40% to shareholders;
• returned $29 billion to shareholders through dividends, share repurchases and exchanges;
• raised its dividend 10 times for a compound annual growth rate of 17%;
• grown its Midstream business, establishing leading positions in the crude and NGL value chains;
• established a values-based organization that is true to its vision of providing energy and improving lives.

It’s that last bullet that Garland said means the most to him as he closes this chapter in a career that started with Phillips Petroleum in 1980.

“From the very beginning, I tried to lead with my personal values of faith and family and community and work,” Garland said when he sat down with Corporate Communications to discuss the transition. “When I think about what we’ve accomplished and the culture that we’ve been able to stand up with the company, that’s what I’m most proud of.”

And, as always, he saved his highest praise and gratitude for the people of Phillips 66, a sentiment he echoed in his email.

“During the last decade as CEO, I have been fortunate enough to do what I love, and to work with the smartest and most talented people I’ve known,” he said. “Thank you for the privilege of being your CEO. I am beyond grateful.”

Shown at top, from left: Greg Garland and Mark Lashier

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“We are committed to being part of the solution and helping the world address climate change,” said Phillips 66 Chairman and CEO Greg Garland. “Our 2050 target further reflects our drive to create shareholder value and ensure Phillips 66 participates in the energy transition.”

Phillips 66 introduced 2030 targets last year, signaling its commitment to taking action and reducing the carbon intensity of its operations. Both sets of targets are compared to 2019 levels.

“We support the ambitions of the Paris Agreement and are increasing our commitment with the 2050 target,” Garland said. “We will continue to prioritize our resources to drive innovation and do our part. The company’s investments to meet its targets will be consistent with its disciplined approach to capital allocation.”

The company’s 2022 capital program of $1.9 billion includes $916 million for growth capital, of which 45% supports lower-carbon opportunities.

The targets set by Phillips 66 are based on the company’s lower-carbon strategy and leverage its Emerging Energy group. The company has made meaningful progress toward developing a lower-carbon business, pursuing opportunities in renewable feedstocks and fuels, sustainable aviation fuel, the U.S. supply chain for batteries and lower-carbon hydrogen, among other areas.

“Achieving long-term greenhouse gas emissions reductions is ambitious and will require changes at and beyond Phillips 66,” Garland said. “Policies are needed to spur investment in lower-carbon infrastructure and technology development, significant shifts are required in consumer behavior, and materials throughout the supply chain must be readily available.” 

Phillips 66 is one of the few downstream energy companies with an in-house research and development organization. The Energy Research & Innovation group works on developing and commercializing lower-carbon technologies to support the energy transition. The company has active U.S. patents in a number of areas, including biofuels, carbon capture, fuel cells and hydrogen.

Go to the Sustainability section of the Phillips 66 website for a presentation with more details on the 2030 and 2050 emissions reduction targets.

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Phillips 66 Pipeline LLC, a wholly owned Midstream subsidiary of Phillips 66, was presented with the American Petroleum Institute’s Distinguished Pipeline Safety Award in the large-operator category on April 20 during the organization’s virtual Pipeline, Control Room and Cybernetics Conference.  

It was Phillips 66 Pipeline’s first time winning the best-in-class award from API, the largest trade organization for the natural gas and oil industry. 

“2020 was a record year for our Phillips 66 team in terms of our health, safety and environmental performance,” said Todd Denton, Vice President of Midstream Operations at Phillips 66. “Our employees and contractors accomplished this outstanding performance while commissioning and placing into full service the largest pipeline project in our company’s history and starting up a major NGL expansion project at our Sweeny Hub, all while managing through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

Phillips 66 also notched honors from GPA Midstream Association, a large trade organization serving the U.S. midstream industry. The honors included a Perfect Record Award, presented to companies with no lost-time incidents, and a second-place Division 2 Safety Award, for companies recording between 200,000 and 999,000 operational work-hours, specific to NGL assets only.  

‘Example for the industry’ 

Phillips 66 Midstream’s portfolio includes more than 22,000 miles of crude oil, refined petroleum products and natural gas liquid pipeline systems in the U.S., including those partially owned or operated by the company’s affiliates.  

Phillips 66 Pipeline achieved zero employee recordable injuries, zero pipeline system release events and zero significant vehicle accidents to lead the industry in 2020.  

API cited the company’s use of a comprehensive risk modeling and Health, Safety and Environment management system as key to the record-setting performance. It also said Phillips 66’s cutting-edge research and development has the potential to improve pipeline safety for the entire industry. 

API President and CEO Mike Sommers said Phillips 66 serves as an “example for an industry that is committed to the continuous advancement of safety.” 

‘A journey that never ends’ 

Phillips 66 Pipeline’s performance came as it delivered key growth projects. These included the Gray Oak Pipeline — the 850-mile pipeline now transporting crude oil from West Texas and the Eagle Ford Shale to demand centers along the Texas Gulf Coast — and the Sweeny Hub Phase 2 project. The latter added 300,000 barrels per day of NGL fractionation and pipeline capacity along with 7 million barrels of storage at nearby Clemens Caverns in Brazoria, Texas.  

“At Phillips 66, we are on a journey of building a culture that places the highest priority on the safety of our people, our communities and the environment,” Denton said. “It’s a journey that never ends, and one that demands we continuously strive for further improvement.”

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