Dickinson refinery representatives	Martinez refinery representatives

Marathon Petroleum’s Dickinson, Martinez, and Salt Lake City refineries have achieved a rare status in the refining and petrochemical industry.

The three were among the recipients of the Elite Silver Safety Award from the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) on April 25 at the organization’s National Occupational and Process Safety Conference. The award recognizes the top 5 percent of facilities across the United States based on their 2018 safety performance. It is the second consecutive year that Dickinson has won the Elite Silver Safety Award.

“This award reflects the depth of our team’s commitment to strive for zero incidents,” said Amber Larsen, Environmental Safety & Security (ESS) manager, Salt Lake City refinery. “Like our counterparts across Marathon Petroleum, we aim to do each task the right way every day, so everybody can return home unharmed to be there for loved ones.”

Salt Lake City refinery representatives:

Facilities have to meet stringent criteria to even be allowed to apply for AFPM’s safety awards. They must have a total recordable incident rate (TRIR) of 0.30 or less for both employees and contractors, and also not have had any process safety events during the year that required notification to the National Response Center. Only 37 of 330 AFPM-member facilities met these requirements and applied. The 25-page application addressed each facility’s personal and process safety programs, metrics, training, culture, and participation in industry safety initiatives. Occupational and process safety subject matter experts from AFPM-member companies evaluated the applications to determine final scores and rankings.

Achieving these awards is not easy, notes Fritz Kin, director, Refining Safety. AFPM also presents the Elite Gold Safety Award, which honors the top 1 percent of facilities based on safety performance, and the Distinguished Safety Award (DSA), which goes to the very best of the top safety performers in the refining and petrochemical industry. This year, only seven facilities earned the DSA.