Justine Arnold - Chevron El Segundo
On January 31, 2019, Chevron’s El Segundo Refinery experienced a lightning strike which resulted in the loss of several key pieces of equipment across the refinery, including a full sulfur unit recovery shutdown. Coker Operations quickly and safely bypassed the unit’s six drums; however, three feeding drums were now at risk for containing tarry material. Utilizing our SME (subject matter experts) guidance on managing tarry drums, all three drums were effectively steam stripped, quenched and cut without an environmental or safety incident. This presentation will review Operations’ response to the power outage and the subsequent decision-making that went into mitigating a potential blowback scenario.