MOSCOW (MRC) — 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, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
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.
"The settlement requires Chevron to exceed current and upcoming requirements and to use new and innovative methods recently developed by engineering experts in the petroleum refining industry to ensure the safe operation of process safety equipment," said Cal/OSHA Chief Juliann Sum. "This means safer operations at the refinery, which will help protect refinery workers and those who work and live nearby."
The agreement resolves Chevron's appeal of citations issued by Cal/OSHA on January 30, 2013, following an investigation into a fire that occurred at the Richmond refinery on August 6, 2012. Cal/OSHA cited Chevron for 17 workplace safety and health violations, including six serious and nine willful in nature. During the settlement negotiations, Cal/OSHA received input from the United Steelworkers and the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The negotiated settlement requires Chevron to institute the following extraordinary measures to ensure process safety at the Richmond refinery: Replace all carbon steel piping that transports corrosive liquids with chrome-alloy piping, which has better corrosion resistance, at an estimated cost of USD15 million. This exceeds current and upcoming workplace safety requirements for refineries.
Develop and implement criteria and procedures, at an estimated cost of $5 million, to monitor equipment to alert operators when equipment should be replaced. This is a new and innovative practice recently developed by refinery engineering experts.
As MRC informed earlier, the US Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to Chevron Corp by preventing Ecuadorean villagers and their American lawyer from trying to collect on an USD8.65 billion pollution judgment issued against the oil company by a court in Ecuador.
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