When NPRA recognized refineries across the United States at its annual safety awards banquet recently, CITGO Petroleum Corp. was showered with honors, receiving 14 awards for the company’s safe operations during 2006. Among CITGO’s honored sites, the Corpus Christi, Texas, Refinery was a star performer, earning an honorable mention for the Distinguished Safety Award (only two refineries out of 121 participating refineries received the award) and receiving two Safety Achievement Awards — one Gold Award and one Merit Award.

Further, the Corpus Christi site’s team members have worked more than three years without a lost work day and almost 2.5 years without an OSHA recordable incident. The site’s contractors have worked three years without a lost-time incident. Together, more than 4.5 million man-hours have been worked without a lost-time incident.

Eduardo Assef is the force behind the team that maintains such outstanding safety performance. As vice president and general manager of the CITGO Corpus Christi Refinery, his mission is clear.

“As the leader, you must first set the vision,” he explained, “and then you must get involved with the management team to assist in removing any obstacles to achieving the vision.”

Assef’s vision for his site and its team includes continuing its safety and environmental excellence as they head toward a $330-million installation and revamp at the site in 2010.

Becoming a leader

A varied range of refining experience led to Assef’s current position at the helm of the CITGO Corpus Christi facility. Born in Venezuela, he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Universidad de Carabobo in 1984.

“After two years in the industry’s private sector, I started my oil industry career in 1985 at El Palito Refinery, one of the most advanced refineries in Venezuela,” Assef said.

There, Assef worked as a mechanical engineer in maintenance and project organizations. He was offered the opportunity to attend a postgraduate program at the French Petroleum Institute (IFP) in 1989, which allowed him to experience the other side of the business in the oil refining industry — process engineering and operations. In 1990, Assef earned a master’s degree in oil refining, gas and petrochemical from IFP.

In 1991, he returned to refinery work, broadening his background in process engineering, operations and management in different areas of the refinery over the next eight years.

In 1999, Assef was transferred to the CITGO Corpus Christi Refinery where he worked in various management positions in the technical and operational groups. In 2004, he became the general manager of operations and maintenance, and in March 2006, Assef accepted his current position.

As vice president and general manager, Assef is responsible for the safe, environmentally clean operations of the refinery to produce gasoline and diesel fuels. This includes overseeing safety, environmental, operations, maintenance, engineering, human resources, new technology implementation and product quality.

For Assef, meeting those responsibilities and the product, safety and environmental requirements of the refinery means ensuring each team member has a sense of ownership for their position.

“A leader must serve as a role model and be aware of the day-to-day work challenges, but each team member is essential,” he said. “Each has a different role to perform, and it is those differences in skills, perspectives and responsibilities that enable the team to achieve more than any individual could ever hope to accomplish.

“When you have leaders and team members instead of managers and employees, you find the organization will consistently obtain challenging targets even in difficult situations while being able to maintain a positive work environment.”

Seventy years of history

The CITGO Corpus Christi site’s rich history dates back to 1937 with the start-up of a 4,000-bpd oil refinery owned by Pontiac Refining Co. Over the years, the site changed ownership a number of times through mergers and acquisitions, and ultimately, the site became the CITGO Corpus Christi Refinery in 1992.

During the 55 years prior, the plant underwent millions of dollars in added capacity, including a $27-million petrochemical addition in 1980 — a cumene unit, capable of meeting 10 percent of the nation’s demand for cumene.

In 1983, a $260-million major expansion created the West Plant, allowing the facility to refine less expensive, heavy, sour crude oil, such as that supplied by Venezuela, into premium-grade fuels and petrochemicals. By 1997, the CITGO Corpus Christi Refinery had expanded to 890 acres.

With a production capacity exceeding 225,000 barrels of feedstock per day and a versatile product mix, today’s CITGO Corpus Christi Refinery has been designed, engineered and built to refine heavy, sour crude oils supplied by Venezuela into high-quality finished petroleum products.

Products manufactured at the plant include fuel gas, LPG, propylene, different grades of gasoline, diesel and several petrochemicals, including benzene, toluene, mixed xylenes, cyclohexane, slurry oil, petroleum coke and cumene.

Committed to safety and beyond

“We have found that there is nothing more powerful than having everyone aligned,” Assef said. “My main goal is to keep our positive ‘can-do’ attitude and to continue challenging our team to raise the bar.”

That challenge includes continuous improvement in all the indicators that measure safety, environmental and refinery performance — all areas in which the team maintains outstanding performance.

“We all have the same goals, and our management team is challenged to keep the focus on what we call the ‘Critical Few,’” Assef explained. “Each year, we establish six to 10 specific goals based on the feedback from our employees.”

That across-the-board commitment and stellar performance have been recognized not only by NPRA but also by Solomon & Associates, which benchmarks the industry, listing CITGO’s Corpus Christi Refinery in the top 25 percent of all refineries in utilizations, energy index and operating expenses.

“We regularly conduct emergency preparedness drills with local, state and federal agencies in order to be prepared for any potential emergencies,” Assef said. “We are establishing new safety records every day, and every team member is strongly motivated to keep it that way.

“There is nothing more important than the safe operation of our complex and allowing our employees and contractors to return home to their family and friends at the end of the day without being hurt.”

The site has employed a behavioral-based safety program since 1995, and the team took its safety efforts another step forward when it implemented its Safety Awareness Committee — an employee-driven group to keep awareness and motivation high.

The refinery is also adding measures to remain competitive from a production standpoint.

“This is a good economic environment for the refining industry, but we are essentially in a commodity business,” Assef explained. “To be successful over the longer term, we must continue to find innovative ways to improve the efficiency and overall performance of our facility for the lowest possible cost.

“The trend in the industry has been toward producing cleaner burning commercial fuels in facilities with the lowest technically achievable emissions. We have a major $330 million project ahead of us in 2010 with the installation of a new unit and a revamp of an existing unit to produce cleaner burning ultra-low sulfur diesel.”

Additionally, CITGO has a plan in place to meet another growing threat — procuring a steady supply of crude oil to process in the refineries.

“CITGO has a secure supply of oil from its owner, PDVSA, which has the largest oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere,” Assef said.

A helping hand

For CITGO, it isn’t all business, and that is true of the Corpus Christi team as well.

“CITGO believes in being not only an active member in business but also in the community,” Assef said. “We not only assist financially, but we also encourage our employees to donate their time and energy to associations and efforts in their communities.”

CITGO supports Special Olympics, March of Dimes, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society and the American Diabetes Association, among others. The Corpus Christi site’s local involvement includes projects such as beach clean up and judging science fairs and the support of community programs, such as the Salvation Army, Metro Ministries, senior centers and many more.

“I feel it is important for industry to participate in the community and to encourage others to do the same to improve the quality of life for residents and visitors,” Assef said. “At the CITGO Corpus Christi Refinery, we participate where a helping hand is needed.”