What I've Learned about the Martinez Refinery Co. and its Owner over the Past Few Days

County audit last year flagged safety concerns, noted significant retirements in refinery staff; refinery is suing Bay Area Air Quality Management District to throw out new pollution rule.

I’ve been doing some research on Martinez Refinery Co. operations in the wake of the spate of incidents over the last few weeks, including the major flaring on Friday night. Here’s a summary of what I’ve found so far.

This audit summary from Contra Costa Hazardous Materials Division last year flagged some significant safety issues:

"The facility needs to consistently conduct emergency drills within each operating plant, improve documentation of periodic field audits for on-site contractors, and conduct safety culture assessments that include evaluation of all elements of process safety leadership listed in CalARP and ISO. Significant improvement is needed in documenting studies associated with inherently safer design assessments to verify equipment improvements are designed with safer alternatives."

Also came across this info from the actual audit that identified five deficiencies and 23 partial deficiencies in operations at the refinery. It also indicated that staffing levels at the refinery were reduced after PBF Energy bought it from Shell, and that there were multiple retirements:

"There has been a significant number of retirements in operation since the change of ownership of the refinery in the past year. Follow-up communications indicated that the operations staffing for the refinery has currently reached the new lower threshold of 4.8 faces per 4 person shift. MRC should consider conducting an MOOC (Management of Organizational Change) to assess the staffing level for operations to stay well above the new threshold of 4.8 faces per each 4 person shift."

PBF's website describes the Martinez facility as one of the "most complex refineries in the United States." Given that complexity, I can't help but wonder what the retirements of experienced operators and staffing changes have meant for safety. I checked PBF's annual reports for 2021 and 2020, and total headcount at the refinery fell from 585 to 565 over those two years, despite the increase in demand for gasoline last year that drove up gas prices and caused refineries such as Martinez to ramp up production.

The refinery is also (along with Chevron) suing the Bay Area Air Quality Management District over a new rule designed to reduce pollution from emissions and accompanying health risks to nearby residents. The lawsuit is currently being litigated in Contra Costa County Superior Court. Interestingly, the new rule addressed emissions from Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Units (CCUs), which was the unit responsible for the release of the powdery dust containing heavy metals on Thanksgiving night (in which the refinery failed to immediately notify the public or county health officials). When it adopted the rule, the BAAQMD said particulate matter emissions from the Martinez refinery (which the new rule is designed to reduce) increases mortality by an average of up to 6.3 deaths per year for the million people most affected.

When PBF bought the Torrance refinery from ExxonMobil in 2016, it experienced a number of flaring incidents and pollution violations that upset the neighboring community and generated fines, as was documented in articles by the Daily Breeze newspaper. A snippet:

The owner of the Torrance refinery ended 2017 the way it started, racking up five air quality violations for excess emissions and other environmental issues, according to Southern California’s air pollution watchdog.

PBF Energy paid a $50,000 fine in December for excessive flaring on Oct. 11 that the South Coast Air Quality Management District deemed a public nuisance.

Thick black smoke from huge flares visible for miles belched for about three hours from the refinery in the early morning hours that day, snarling traffic after a regional power outage knocked the plant offline. Residents were urged to shelter in place with doors and windows closed until the order was lifted after about 20 minutes. One refinery worker was taken to a local hospital with unspecified injuries.

Another article from the Daily Breeze detailed frustrations from nearby residents. To wit:

“A lot of people are saying they’ve not noticed this much flaring before, even when ExxonMobil was here,” said Catherine Leys, co-founder of FLARE, an acronym for Families Lobbying Against Refinery Exposures.

Finally, the company is swimming in profits and cash, so there should be no excuse for not making its refinery as safe and secure as possible (one of the arguments it is making in its lawsuit against BAAQMD over the new pollution rule is that it is “cost-prohibitive” to install the “wet scrubber” devices that would be required to comply with the new rule). Snippets from an article on its latest earning report:

Oct 27 (Reuters) - U.S. refiner PBF Energy Inc (PBF.N) posted a bumper third-quarter profit on Thursday that cruised past Wall Street estimates, boosted by strong demand for fuel and refined products and robust refining margins, sending its shares 8% higher.

PBF's gross refining margin, excluding special items, tripled to $2.26 billion in the reported quarter.

Net income attributable to stockholders stood at $1.06 billion, or $8.40 per share, in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with $59.1 million, or 49 cents per share, last year.