Shell Anacortes Refinery
Anacortes, Washington boasts two fully functioning oil refineries. The plant which is now operated by Shell Oil Company was built in 1958, and was originally owned by Texaco Inc. This remained the case until 1998, when Texaco made a merger with the Shell Oil Company to form Equilon Enterprises LLC. For a while Equilon operated both facilities as the Shell Oil Company, but state regulations would not allow one company to operate two refineries that were so close together, so the second plant was sold to the Tesoro company.
Shell's refinery has endured a few major problems over the years. One of the first was a serious health hazard within the plant itself that may have affected thousands of people. The Anacortes plant, like so many others, had many items on the premises that were made with asbestos, before it was found to be toxic and unsafe. These products were common in refineries, because they were able to withstand excessive temperatures. Over time, however, the products would break apart, which would release the asbestos into the environment. Since asbestos is made up of microscopic particles, people could easily breathe them in and not even know it. This could then lead to extreme respiratory damage and a type of cancer called mesothelioma, which can be deadly. Following the discovery that asbestos was so hazardous, every item that contained had to be removed from the site and properly disposed of.
In 1998 the plant faced a catastrophic disaster that began with a power outage caused by a large storm from the Pacific. Power was restored, and workers attempted to restart a large processing unit. To do this, they had to take the equipment apart, and they got started as soon as they believed it was safe to do so. They expected the unit to be sufficiently cooled, but the core of the unit was still extremely hot, and ignited into a large explosion. The explosion knocked out power to the refinery and nearby neighborhoods and started a large fire. During the accident, the lives of six people were lost, making this one of the worst tragedies at an oil refinery plant. The ensuing settlement saw Shell paying $45 million, much of which went to a trust fund for the families who had lost loved ones.
A second fire occurred at the plant in October of 2007 when a large storage tank ignited. Two plant employees were nearby, and alerted fire officials immediately. The plant was partially evacuated, and fire fighters spent the next two hours putting the blaze out. In the end, the two employees and one fire fighter sustained very minor injuries, but due to the fast acting crews further incident was avoided.
Today the Shell owned plant takes great steps to be a safe and environmentally conscious facility. The plant has earned recognition for these efforts, including three consecutive Shell CEO's Environmental Excellence Awards. On any given day the plant is able to produce up to 145,000 of crude oil per day.
Last modified: December 09, 2009.
