refinery safety - Page 1

U.S. Chemical Safety Board Report Marks 20th Anniversary of Fatal BP Texas City Refinery Disaster

April 16, 2025

This new report summarizes the recommendations made by the CSB and some of the steps that have been taken by the chemical industry since 2005 to improve safety at refineries and other chemical facilities.

Mitigating the hidden risks of start-up and shutdown operations

Danielle Cowdrey

September 26, 2023

While commonly associated with planned shutdowns and turnarounds, SU/SD operations also encompass routine operational cycles and processes that occur independently of these events. These SU/SD operations produce various risks that need to be carefully managed to ensure the safety, reliability, and efficiency of industrial facilities.

Cal/OSHA, Chevron reach settlement in 2012 Richmond refinery fire

Company will replace piping, institute safeguards

July 27, 2017

Cal/OSHA and Chevron have reached a settlement agreement for a comprehensive plan that will improve safety at the Chevron Richmond refinery and for surrounding communities. The agreement meets and exceeds California’s landmark regulation to reduce risk at refineries, which was approved by the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board in May and is currently pending approval by the Office of Administrative Law.

Cal/OSHA OKs tough new refinery safety regulation

Rule intended to reduce risk of major incidents

May 23, 2017

While regulations on the federal level are being repealed or delayed, the rulemaking process is still going strong at the state level – as demonstrated by California’s approval last week of a tough new oil refinery safety regulation.

Refinery expansion project claims a life

November 9, 2016

A South Dakota pipefitter suffered fatal burns at an ethanol refinery when ethanol spilled from a process pipe he was working on and was ignited by flames from nearby welding operations.

Safety and environmental worries rank lowest on oil executives’ priorities lists

September 2, 2016

Safety, health and the environment are the lowest priorities for oil and gas executives for the next three years &mdash

CSB issues safety alert stemming from fatal Tesoro Anacortes investigation

August 15, 2016

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has issued a safety alert entitled “CSB Safety Alert: Preventing High Temperature Hydrogen Attack (HTHA)” focused on preventing accidents similar to the fatal 2010 explosion and fire at the Tesoro Refinery in Anacortes, WA that fatally injured 7 workers.

CSB: Multiple safety deficiencies led to 2015 explosion at ExxonMobil Refinery

January 14, 2016

An ongoing investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) of the February 18, 2015, explosion at the ExxonMobil Refinery in Torrance, California, has uncovered multiple process safety management deficiencies that led to the accident and a serious near miss.

CSB’s initial findings in ExxonMobile explosion to be made public

January 6, 2016

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) will get an update on the investigation into last year’s blast at the ExxonMobile Refinery in Torrance, California at its upcoming meeting.

ExxonMobil California refinery explosion in February a near miss, says CSB

October 23, 2015

When part of an ExxonMobil refinery exploded in February south of Los Angeles, smoke filled the sky and ash rained down on nearby neighborhoods. Four workers were injured, but at the time ExxonMobil told residents that no one in the community was ever in danger. But CBS News revealed it could have been much worse.