Latest news with #refinery
Associated Press
a day ago
- Business
- Associated Press
AFPM's Highest Safety Honor Goes to Three Marathon Petroleum Refineries
Key Points May 30, 2025 /3BL/ - Only four facilities earned the highest honor at this year's American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) safety awards, and three of them are from Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC). The company's refineries in Detroit, Michigan; El Paso, Texas; and Kenai, Alaska, received the Distinguished Safety Award (DSA), which is reserved for facilities with performance in the top 1% of the industry. 'These awards reflect how strongly our facilities are adhering to company tenets that promote an incident-free workplace,' said MPC Refining Personal Safety & Security Senior Director Fritz Kin. 'Safe and reliable operations come only by focusing daily on protecting our people and the communities where we operate.' The DSA recognized the sites for a sustained, exemplary level of safety performance, program innovation and safety leadership throughout 2024. The winners were selected from a pool of finalists after site representatives went through face-to-face interviews with a committee of industry safety experts. In addition to the DSA winners, MPC's Catlettsburg, Kentucky, refinery won AFPM's Elite Silver Award for safety performance in the top 10% of the industry. Also, MPC's Robinson, Illinois, and Salt Lake City, Utah, refineries received the Safety Achievement Award for maintaining exemplary safety standards. Additionally, MPC's Refining Safety and Refining IT groups earned an Honorable Mention Award for innovation that recognized deployment of a chatbot tool to enhance safety. 'We are extremely proud of our teams because we know the focus that's required to reach this level of excellence and set yourself apart from industry peers,' said MPC Refining Process Safety Management Senior Director Marcus Garvin. 'Our employees truly put our core value of safety and environmental stewardship into action through consistent practices that reinforce safe work execution.' AFPM's awards reflect both personal safety performance and process safety performance. Among other award criteria, eligible facilities must not have a single recordable injury involving a life-critical task – an activity with the potential to cause serious harm to individuals; severe equipment damage; or a negative environmental impact. The Detroit refinery's DSA is its first since winning a 2010 and 2008 DSA. This is the first year the El Paso and Kenai refineries have earned the DSA. At last year's awards, the El Paso refinery received a 2023 Elite Platinum Award, AFPM's second highest honor, and the Kenai refinery earned a 2023 Elite Silver Award. Visit 3BL Media to see more multimedia and stories from Marathon Petroleum
Free Malaysia Today
2 days ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Ecuador declares emergency at fire-hit oil refinery
The fire has caused extensive damage at the massive plant in the northwestern Esmeraldas province. (AP pic) QUITO : Ecuador today declared an emergency at the country's main oil refinery, where a fuel tank fire halted operations earlier this week, the state oil company Petroecuador said. Petroecuador said the fire that erupted Monday had caused extensive damage at the massive plant in the northwestern Esmeraldas province, near the border with Colombia. Two fuel oil tanks and an electrical substation at the plant – which can refine 110,000 barrels per day into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and domestic gas – had been impaired. 'This forced the emergency shutdown of key units and auxiliary steam and power systems,' the plant operator said. No one was hurt in the blaze, and Petroecuador did not specify the amount of fuel that was in the tank when the fire broke out. But it cautioned that the fire erupted near two tanks that can store up to 2,544 cubic metres of fuel. To address the dangerous situation, the company said that the Esmeraldas Refinery had today 'declared an emergency operation to allow for urgent repairs and the restoration of operating conditions as quickly as possible'. The 60-day operation would facilitate the allocation of funds without bureaucratic procedures, it said. Ecuador is one of South America's top oil producers and is heavily reliant on its petroleum exports for revenue. Petroecuador did not specify how long the stocks at its distribution centres would last. Ecuador has two other refineries, with respective capacity for 45,000 and 20,000 barrels per day. The government said in a statement Monday that 'the supply of fuel is completely guaranteed throughout the country' despite the fire.
CBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CBC
North Atlantic in talks to acquire second-largest oil refinery in France
A Newfoundland and Labrador-based company that's been on a steady trajectory of growth is poised to make a significant expansion into Europe, as North Atlantic Refining Limited aims to become a global player in the conventional and renewable energy sectors. North Atlantic, as it's known, made international business headlines on Wednesday with news that it's in talks with oil giant ExxonMobil to purchase the Port-Jerome-Gravenchon oil refinery in northern France. The facility is the second-largest oil refinery in France at roughly 230,000 barrels of crude per day, and is one the largest integrated chemical complexes in Western Europe. And there's already a connection with Newfoundland and Labrador because the facility refines crude from the offshore, and North Atlantic routinely purchases fuels from the refinery to supply its gas stations in the province. "It's a fantastic foothold for us in terms of our plans for expansion into Europe," Ted Lomond, North Atlantic's president and CEO, told CBC News during an interview from Paris. ExxonMobil has accepted North Atlantic's offer to acquire its 83 per cent stake in Esso Société Anonyme Française SA and 100 per cent of ExxonMobil Chemical France SAS. The deal comes with a price tag of nearly $700 million Cdn and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025. Lomond is now in talks with union and government officials in France. "We need to work with them and make sure that they're comfortable with us as a player," Lomond explained, adding that the company plans to retain the current workforce. "Our goal is to have a global energy company headquartered in Newfoundland and Labrador." North Atlantic has created a new division called North Atlantic France to manage the refinery, with Lomond serving as president. This is not new territory for North Atlantic. The company owned and operated the Come By Chance oil refinery in Placentia Bay, which peaked at 130,000 barrels per day prior to its closure in early 2020. The refinery has since been converted into a renewable fuels facility by its new owners, but is currently idled because of challenging market conditions. North Atlantic operates a logistics hub at the Port of Come By Chance, where it imports roughly 60 per cent of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel supply for the province. The company has also expanded its chain of Orange Stores into Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, recently established a trucking company and is proposing to establish a multi-billion-dollar wind-to- hydrogen facility in Come By Chance and Sunnyside. The company currently employs 360 workers. Lomond said the company will explore the possibility of using renewable energy from Newfoundland to energize the refinery in France, and use the site as a "launching point" to distribute green hydrogen throughout Europe. A news release from the company said "North Atlantic aims to develop Gravenchon into a green energy hub, leveraging its infrastructure to accelerate the deployment of low-carbon fuels and renewable power." Lomond said the province will benefit in other ways from the deal. For example, he said North Atlantic currently buys fuels on the spot market, but as the owner of a refinery, he said the company will have a secure supply of fuels for the province. He added that some "functions" of the facility may also be performed in the province, which could mean additional jobs in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Slovak refiner will continue supplies to Czech Republic after sanctions waiver ends
May 28 (Reuters) - Slovak refinery Slovnaft has secured alternative crude supplies to maintain diesel exports to the Czech market after the June 5 expiry of an EU exemption that allowed it to export products derived from Russian oil, parent company MOL ( opens new tab said. Slovnaft exports about half of its production, and has been using primarily Russian oil supplied via the Druzhba pipeline, using a temporary exemption from EU sanctions which allowed it to process the oil for the domestic and export markets. After June 5, it will not be allowed to export Russian oil-based products, but can still use them on the domestic market. The 124,000 barrels-per-day Slovnaft refinery has made technological changes and secured alternative crude supplies to continue exporting to the Czech Republic, MOL said. "Slovnaft will continue to supply the Czech market even after the derogation expires, thanks to... investments delivered by MOL Group in recent years to make its refining technology more flexible," it said in emailed responses to Reuters questions. Imports from Slovakia account for about 10% of overall Czech demand for diesel, which totalled 5.4 million metric tons in 2024, according to the Czech Statistical Office. Slovnaft processed 5.3 million tons of oil in 2023, the last data available, of which 0.8 million were non-Russian. It imports alternative sea-delivered crudes through the Adria pipeline from Croatia. "MOL Group is constantly looking for alternative supply solutions and routes," MOL said. "For example, the oil trading agreement between MOL and (Hungarian energy firm) MVM could increase the volume of Azerbaijani crude oil imported into the region by 160,000 tons per year." MOL did not specify how the balance of Druzhba and Adria flows to Slovnaft was expected to change from next month. Slovakia imported 4.83 million tons of oil in 2024, out of which 4.18 million tons were from Russia, according to data from the Slovak Statistical Office. Slovakia and Hungary have been keen to keep oil and gas imports from Russia, thanks to derogations from EU sanctions taking into account bottlenecks on other supply routes, and have resisted EU plans to scrap the exemptions.
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Dangote Ends Nigeria's Run as Africa's Biggest Fuel Importer
Nigeria's time as Africa's biggest fuel importer has ended as the Dangote mega-refinery boosts production. The title is now held by South Africa, where operational fuel-making capacity has shrunk, according to a consultancy. Billionaire Aliko Dangote 's 650,000-barrel-a-day plant started ramping up in 2024, part of Africa's leading crude producer's aim to stop sending oil to Europe to be processed and shipped back.
