Petroleum Refinery National Priority Case Results
EPA's national Petroleum Refinery Priority addresses air emissions from the Nation's petroleum refineries. Our results have been:
- Since March 2000, the Agency has entered into 22 settlements with U.S. companies that refine nearly 87 percent of the Nation's petroleum refining capacity.
- These settlements cover 96 refineries in 28 states and on full implementation will result in annual emissions reductions on more than 86,000 tons of nitrogen oxides and more than 245,000 tons of sulfur dioxide.
- Negotiations are continuing with other refiners representing an additional 6 percent of domestic refining capacity and investigations are underway on others.
Settling companies have agreed to:
- Invest more than $5 billion in control technologies and pay civil penalties of more than $72 million
- Perform supplemental environmental projects valued at approximately $65 million
EPA's settlements require:
- Significant reductions of nitrogen oxide
- Significant reductions of sulfur dioxide
- Additional emission reductions of benzene, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter
EPA's investigations focused on the four most significant Clean Air Act compliance challenges for this industry and the emissions units that are the source of most of its pollution:
- New Source Review/Prevention of Significant Deterioration
- Fluidized catalytic cracking units
- Heaters and boilers
- New Source Performance Standards
- Flares
- Sulfur recovery units
- Fuel gas combustion devices (including heaters and boilers)
- Leak Detection and Repair requirements
- Benzene National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants
EPA has reached innovative, multi-issue, multi-facility settlement negotiations with the following major petroleum refining companies:
- BP Exploration and Oil, Inc.
- Chevron USA Inc.
- CHS Inc. (Cenex)
- CITGO
- Coastal Eagle Point Oil Company (CEPOC)
- Conoco, Inc. (preconsolidation refineries only)
- ConocoPhillips
- Ergon Refining Inc.
- ExxonMobil Corporation
- Giant
- Holly Refining
- Hunt Refining
- Koch Industries
- Lion Oil
- Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC
- Motiva Enterprises LLC/Equilon Enterprises/Deer Park Refining (Shell)
- Navajo Refining Company and Montana Refining Company
- Sinclair Oil Co.
- Sunoco, Inc.
- Total Petrochemicals U.S.A
- Valero Eagle Refining Company
- Valero (Premcor)
For more information, please review the Petroleum Refinery National Priority Fact Sheet.
A summary of progress to date, and the cumulative impact of individual cases, along with additional information on the National Priority Strategy can be found on the Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Priority: Petroleum Refining web page.
PowerPoint Presentation on the results of the Petroleum Refinery National Priority (PDF) (136pp, 1M, About pdf).
Selected Enforcement Alerts Affecting Petroleum Refineries
- Voluntary Program (slotted guidepoles) - May 2000
- Fugitive Emissions (LDAR) - October 1999
- Flaring - October 2000
- RCRA new waste listings - April 1999
- NSR/PSD - January 1999