Refinery Safety and Regulatory Challenges in Texas

Marathon's profit-driven delay in maintenance caused a deadly explosion at the refinery, risking worker safety and environmental impact.

### Refinery Safety: Balancing Profit and Worker Protection
* ⚠️  Marathon's Gison Bay Refinery explosion on May 15, 2023, resulted from **postponed maintenance on an ultraformer unit**, highlighting the industry's struggle to **balance profit and safety**.
* 💰  Refiners delayed maintenance during the pandemic, then rushed to capture **high profit margins**, potentially compromising **safety**.
* 🏭  Refinery safety is regulated by multiple agencies, including OSHA, EPA, and DHS, with **relatively low penalties for violations** compared to environmental fines.
* 👷  Contract workers, like R.B., are particularly vulnerable, facing **higher risks and less protection** than full-time employees.
* 🔥  The Gison Bay explosion could have been catastrophic, potentially affecting **global oil prices** due to Texas refineries' **significant impact on the market**.
* 🛠️ " One of the big moves now is to go with **inherently safer controls in refineries**, but there is resistance due to **cost concerns**.
* 🚫  Despite fears, many workers feel they have no choice but to return to potentially dangerous workplaces due to **economic pressures**.
* 🌿  California's Cal OSHA is leading the way in refinery safety regulations, with **more inspections** and a focus on **reducing hazardous materials**.

so we're outside, about 75 ft in the air. I looked down and I just saw fire just rushing towards me. On May 15, 2023, at gison Bay Refinery, a pump blew up for the second time in 2 weeks. There's been a fire at a Houston-area plant, and in this case today, it was deadly. R. B. again was one of the Android workers. The smoke was so thick I couldn't breathe. I just got in a little ball. Marathon, like every other refiner in the US, they're always trying to balance optimizing operations, maximizing profit, and worker safety. And all I had in my head was my wife is pregnant, there's no way I'm not making it. In 2020, the pandemic decimated fuel demand, and that really hit refiners hard. Many refiners decided to push back costly maintenance in order to protect their balance sheet, and the work just started to pile up. Now come 2021, fuel demand started coming back, but capacity was still constrained, and that's when we

saw fuel prices sky rocket typically a $10 a barrel was a break-even margin. Now they're making historic levels they had never seen before, and so in order to capture these profits, many refiners, including Marathon, decided to postpone refinery maintenance. Again, first because refiners weren't making enough money, and then because they were making too much money to stop. We came out with Burns Burns in the face, my wrist, my hands, nose, cheeks got burn, my ears. I almost died, you know. Refineries are very complicated, but basically there are a lot of pipelines, a lot of valves, and those all connect to some kind of containers where substances are mixed or heated. And there can be failures in any one of those. The May 15 explosion could have been prevented, according to an internal investigation. Marathon had identified a particular unit, a unit called an ultraformer, as needing maintenance. To carry out maintenance there would likely mean to shut it down, and each day that you're not running that ultraformer is a day you're missing out on these historic

profits. They pushed back that work. As a result, that pump continued operating until it exploded. Because these refineries are so big in Texas, a single unit outage has the potential to move global oil prices. As we track these unplanned outages, we come to see patterns of excess emissions and injuries, and safety issues too. The regulatory environment for oil companies is somewhat complicated to the extent that there are several different agencies that oversee the safety in refineries. I mean, you have EPA that addresses the threat to the community surrounding the plants. You have OSHA that oversees the safety of workers in the plants. And then you have the Department of Homeland Security that looks at the entire security situation in terms of terrorist ISM related to chemical plants. Under the law, refineries have to comply with the standards. Now, obviously, OSHA can't be everywhere at one time. They're mostly after incidents, especially the large ones. But OSHA has the ability and the will to actually get to places before there's been some kind of major incident. The problem is

OSHA's very small. So often, when OSHA goes in to inspect a refinery or a chemical plant, they'll find a number of violations because the company, for example, may have deferred preventive maintenance. They may have not done any kind of recent process hazard analyses. They may have not done the training required. Um, there may be other procedural problems they have that they are either putting off to save money or just neglected to do for a number of reasons. BP is facing serious citations and fines from OSHA. $156,000 in penalties, a $113,260 penalty. The Suncor Refinery in Commerce City is facing a new fine, $156,25, which is about what Suncor makes every minute with $19 to spare. In terms of penalties issued by OSHA, they tend to be fairly low. The maximum penalty for what's known as a serious violation is only somewhere in the neighborhood of $6,000. Uh, if you get to willful violation, uh, where the employer had some knowledge that they were violating the

law. You can get up to about 10 times that much, to $160,000. EPA is able to issue much higher penalties under its Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act than OSHA is under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. You face much higher penalties from killing fish, crabs, or birds than you do for killing workers. RTO is a contract worker. Contract workers are different from employees in that they're typically not part of a union, and they're not full-time. They're employed to carry out turnaround work and regular maintenance. Refineries have grown increasingly reliant on these contract workers, in part because they are cheaper. Whenever we were running away, I looked back at the tower, and like the explosion, like it exploded again, like I saw the flames just cover the whole tower, to the top, to the very top. If we would have stayed up there, we would have burned right there. Marathon was fined about $60,000, but Marathon disputed two of the four citations associated with that event and got the fines cut down by half.

so they're only on the hook for $30,000. One of the big moves now is to go with inherently safer controls in refineries. There are 21 states who have what's known as OSHA State plans. They run their own OSHA Programs. California being one of them. Cal oia completely revamped the way it regulated these chemical plants. It added inspectors, it had more routine inspections, reducing the amount of highly hazardous materials refineries. That means changing processes that are safer from the start. There is a lot of resistance to that, mainly because of cost. When workers die, a dollar number is put on each life. A regulation comes into being if there are enough lives and money at stake. Honestly, to me, I kind of feel stuck. I feel like I have no choice but to go back. But honestly, I'm very frightened to go back. It is just too dangerous. But also, I don't want to not be able to support my P [Music] [Music]

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Safety Issues and Profit Maximization in Refineries

A deadly fire at the Gison Bay Refinery on May 15, 2023, was the result of a pump explosion, which could have been prevented with maintenance.

Refineries, including Marathon, have been postponing maintenance to maximize profits, leading to dangerous conditions for workers.

The push to capture historic levels of profit has compromised worker safety and contributed to the increase in refinery accidents.

Challenges in the Safety Regulation of Texas Refineries

Texas refineries are facing challenges in safety regulation, leading to excess emissions, injuries, and compliance issues.

These refineries, being significant players in the global oil market, have the potential to impact global oil prices with their unplanned outages.

The regulatory environment, involving multiple agencies such as the EPA, OSHA, and the Department of Homeland Security, presents complexity in overseeing the safety of the community, workers, and security of the plants.

The Differences in Penalties and Fines for Environmental Violations

The EPA can impose much higher penalties under the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act compared to OSHA's penalties under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Killing fish, crabs, or birds can result in significantly higher fines than causing harm to workers.

Contract workers, like RTO, are increasingly used in refineries for turnaround work and maintenance due to their cost-effectiveness, as they are not unionized and are hired on a non-full-time basis.

The Impact of OSHA State Plans on Refinery Safety

Refineries in 21 states, including California, are affected by OSHA State plans, leading to revamped regulations for safer processes.

The resistance to these changes is mainly due to cost concerns and the valuation of human lives in the industry.

The current situation has left workers feeling frightened and stuck between the dangers of the job and the need to support themselves.