Saudi Aramco, LBC Tank Terminals secure ILTA's Platinum Safety Awards
HOUSTON—Saudi Aramco and LBC Tank Terminals secured the top safety awards during the International Liquid Terminals Association’s 15th Annual Safety Excellence Awards presentation held Tuesday, Oct. 5, at the Marriott Marquis in Houston.
The safety awards breakfast was one of the many highlights of ILTA’s return to in-person gatherings with the 2021 ILTA Operating Conference & Trade Show after last year’s meeting, which would have included the storage terminal association’s 40th anniversary celebration, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
And the global health crisis continued to impact the association a year later.
Competing in the large-company division, which includes companies with 200 or more full-time employees, Saudi Aramco’s Eastern Region Distribution Department accepted its first Platinum Safety Award remotely due to pandemic-related travel restrictions.
“The Eastern Region Distribution Department (ERDD) at Saudi Aramco is honored to be selected for the prestigious International Liquid Terminals Association (ILTA) 2021 Platinum Safety Award,” ERDD manager Abdulwahab Al-Qahtani said in a statement displayed for ILTA members who were in attendance. “On this great occasion, I would like first to congratulate all ERDD, Saudi Aramco employees and our business partners for demonstrating continuous focus and excellence in HSE (health, safety, and environment).
“This award truly belongs to each one of them.”
LBC sent terminal managers T.J. Buffaloe and Jody Kelley to accept its Platinum Safety Award in the small-company division in-person.
“It’s an honor to receive this award, and we’re excited that our employees’ efforts are being recognized by their peers in the industry,” Kelley said. “LBC strives to create a safety culture that provides a safe, environmentally sound work environment for all our employees, our contractors, and our community; and we value our partnership with ILTA and its members—and look for forward to continued success in the future.”
All Platinum Safety Award candidates must achieve an average total recordable incident rate (TRIR) of 0.5 or less per 100 employees and submit detailed descriptions of their safety programs for peer review by ILTA members. This year’s panel of more than a dozen judges considered critical factors like company management commitment to safety, active employee participation, safety training programs, hazard identification and control, and innovations in safety programs in selecting Saudi Aramco and LBC as the 2021 winners.
“What makes the Platinum award that we give out every year special is that it is truly recognition by one’s peers,” said Kathryn Clay, ILTA president. “The way we have the Platinum Safety Award deliberation process set up, first all the companies must achieve a rate of .5 as a TRIR for the previous year, to even be considered. At that point they are invited to submit an application, and the process of going through that application is quite exhaustive. It’s a very time-intensive effort, but we know the commitment required to participate in the process is very valuable. It’s a way of having that conversation within your company about, ‘What is our safety culture, how do we demonstrate that, and what are the particular things that we do that demonstrate that?’”
CITGO Petroleum Corporation (large division) and MIPC (small division) secured the coveted Platinum Safety Awards last year, and Marathon Petroleum (large) and Motiva Enterprises (small) were the 2019 Platinum award winners.
ILTA also presented its 2021 Safety Improvement and Safety Excellence Awards.
The Safety Improvement Award winners were LBC Tank Terminals in Houston, Marathon Petroleum Company, and Vecenergy
“To qualify for the 2021 safety improvement award, companies must demonstrate a trendline in improvement in their TRIR rate over the prior three years and report a 2020 TRIR rate that is 40% lower than the average of that same time period in their data,” Clay said.
The Safety Excellence Award winners achieved an average TRIR of .75 or less last year. For companies with fewer than 100 employees, ILTA uses statistics averaged across multiple years to provide an equivalent incident rate.
“While we’ve kept the threshold the same over the years, the number of companies that are achieving this level of accomplishment has increased, which is a wonderful thing for the industry,” Clay said. “It really demonstrates the industry’s commitment to safety, and the progress that we’re all making together.”
The 2021 Safety Excellence Award winners are:
- Chemserve Terminal of Wilmington
- CITGO Petroleum Company
- Enterprise Products Company
- Ergon, Inc.
- Flint Hills Resources
- Intercontinental Terminals Company
- International Raw Materials Ltd.
- International-Matex Tank Terminals
- Marathon Petroleum Company
- MIPC
- Moda Midstream
- Motiva Enterprises
- Murphy Oil USA
- NuStar Energy, L.P.
- Oiltanking North America
- Phillips 66 Company
- Plains All American
- Targa Terminals
- Vecenergy
