Growing up in Houston and in a family that was involved in the oil business, Rich Bedell had an idea of the journey his life might take. After graduating with a degree in chemical engineering from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania in 1979, Bedell, who also has a master’s in petroleum engineering from the University of Houston, accepted a job at Marathon Petroleum Co. LLC’s Garyville, La., refinery as a process engineer, starting a 28-year career with the company that has taken him all over the country.

During his career, Bedell has served at various positions throughout the refinery. In 2001, he became the refinery manager for the Garyville facility.

Responsible for all the activity that goes on at the facility, including safety and environmental performance, operating performance and financial duties, Bedell’s days are full. Recently, those days have included preparations for a major facility expansion.

“No two days are alike,” he said. “We might start them out the same way, but every day is different, which makes it exciting.”

Marathon’s Garyville refinery

Located between Baton Rouge, La., and New Orleans, the Garyville refinery sits along the banks of the Mississippi River, which allows the refinery the flexibility to ship its products worldwide.

Beginning operation in 1976, the Garyville refinery is the newest major grassroots refinery in the United States. The 245,000 bpd refinery is one of the 20 largest refineries in the country and primarily produces products such as gasoline and distillate fuels. The refinery also produces propane, propylene, isobutene, asphalt, coke, slurry and sulfur.

The refinery is situated on what was originally the 2,950-acre San Francisco Plantation. Restored by Marathon in 1976, the plantation has been designated a National Historic Landmark and is open for tours.

Going beyond compliance on safety and the environment

According to Bedell, one of the most important responsibilities he has as the refinery manager is making sure the facility is a safe workplace and continues its solid environmental performance.

“We call it our ‘license to operate,’” Bedell said. “You need to have a safe work environment, take care of your employees, take care of your community, and then take care of your company.”

Marathon has succeeded in meeting that challenge. In 2006, the refinery achieved an OSHA recordable rate of 0.43 and logged its fifth straight year without a lost-time incident. With 570 full-time Marathon employees and 350 contractors on site on a full-time basis, Bedell is proud of the employees and their commitment to safety.

“We maintain our safety performance through the programs and the dedication of our employees,” Bedell said. “You need to have serious employee involvement, awareness and commitment on a daily basis, backed by good, solid programs. This creates good safety culture. A good safety culture is difficult to build and very easy to lose.”

The employees at the refinery maintain the safety culture by heavy participation in a variety of programs such as behavior-based safety programs. In addition, audit teams made up of refinery employees go out and audit specific items each month and report their findings during a plantwide meeting, Bedell said.

In 1994, the Garyville refinery became one of the first refineries to be awarded OSHA VPP Star status. Bedell credits those he works with for the honor.

“We have great people working here, which helps us maintain a safe work environment,” he said. “Safety is something that everyone can get involved with and everyone cares about.

“The employees here have built the safety programs over the last 30 years, and they deserve a lot of credit for what they put together. People take safety very seriously at the plant.”

Bedell is also quick to point out the facility’s environmental performance, which has received numerous recognitions, including 12 Louisiana Governor’s Awards for Pollution Prevention, acceptance into the EPA’s Voluntary Early Reduction Program for Air Toxics, and acceptance into the EPA’s National Waste Minimization Partnership Program. In 2002, the Garyville facility became the first and only refinery in the country to be accepted as a member in the EPA’s National Environmental Performance Track (NEPT). This recognition, which is equivalent to the OSHA VPP Star program, is a voluntary program that requires refineries to go beyond compliance in environmental performance.

That dedication to move beyond compliance has been demonstrated by Marathon’s investments in emission reduction equipment that goes further than the regulations require. In addition, the facility has set up monitoring around the refinery’s perimeter to assure air quality and safeguard the community.

When new regulations were put in place recently regarding clean fuel standards, the Garyville facility invested almost $300 million in new process units to meet the new standards for fuel.

“With this facility, safety and environmental performance go beyond compliance,” Bedell said, “and that’s indicative of Marathon’s commitment to Responsible Care® principles across all aspects of its business.”

Reinvesting in industry

As demand for energy continues to grow, Marathon is planning and investing in the future.

Recently, Marathon’s board of directors approved an estimated $3.2 billion project that will expand the refinery’s capacity by 180,000 bpd, pushing overall capacity of the refinery to 425,000 bpd and placing it among the five largest refineries in the nation. According to Bedell, the facility’s Gulf Coast location, the available land and the efficiency of the refinery made Garyville the ideal spot for the expansion.

Essentially building a new refinery, the expansion will include a new crude and vacuum distillation unit, reformer, hydrocracker, delayed coker, kerosene hydrotreater and sulfur plants, Bedell said.

“This expansion will help make the country more self-sufficient,” Bedell said. “There has been a lot of talk in Washington regarding the need for more refining capacity, and we’re the first to make such a major investment.”

Construction on the expansion started earlier this year and is estimated to be complete by the fourth quarter of 2009. During construction, job activity will require an average of 2,000 workers, with up to 4,000 workers required at peak periods, which will provide significant economic benefits to the local area and to the state.

With so many workers needed for the expansion, Marathon has been busy working with the people of Louisiana and the local contractors to identify and hire qualified workers.

In addition, the facility recently sponsored a job fair with representatives from the contractor companies working on the expansion and representatives from River Parishes Louisiana Technical College in Reserve, La. Approximately 2,000 job seekers attended the fair, which provided attendees the opportunity to speak with companies about the available jobs and also learn where they could receive the needed job training.

While Bedell is excited about the future of the Garyville refinery and the upcoming expansion, he remains committed to maintaining the facility’s safety culture, environmental performance and high standards.

“We have a big challenge bringing in a lot of new people,” he said, “but I think we have the work force to not only expand a facility, but also to maintain those high standards.”

An exciting time for industry

“In the 28 years that I’ve been in the industry, this is probably the most exciting time I’ve seen,” Bedell said.

When Bedell first came to work at Marathon in 1979, the company was undertaking its first major expansion to the Garyville refinery. However, he said, that was really the end of the “big building boom.”

“There has been a long drought where there haven’t been any new facilities or major expansions,” Bedell said. “Now a number of companies are talking about major refinery expansions, so we’ve really come full circle. Today, we get to be involved at a time when the focus is not only on expanding facilities, but on expanding the market as well.”