AFPM’s highest safety honor goes to three Marathon Petroleum refineries

Business News

award, safety, environment, Detroit, Michigan, El Paso, Kenai, Texas, Catlettsburg, Kentucky, Robinson, Illinois, Salt Lake City, Utah
Representatives of all the award-winning MPC refineries and senior company executives after the AFPM presentation ceremony.   

Key Points 

  • Marathon Petroleum Corporation set a company record for recognition at this year’s American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers safety awards.
  • For the first time in the same year, three of its refineries earned the highest safety honor, which reflects performance in the top 1% of the industry.
  • Three other Marathon refineries were also recognized for their 2024 safety performance, and the company was highlighted for a technical innovation.

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.

Representatives of MPC’s Detroit refinery and senior company executives with the refinery’s Distinguished Safety Award, AFPM’s highest safety honor.  

“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. 

Representatives of MPC’s El Paso refinery and senior company executives celebrate the refinery’s first Distinguished Safety Award, which follows the Elite Platinum Award, AFPM’s second highest honor, that the refinery won last year.

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.”  

Representatives of MPC’s Kenai refinery and senior company executives with the refinery’s Distinguished Safety Award (DSA), which is the refinery’s first DSA after the site earned an Elite Silver Award last year. 

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.