2009 Information
• Number of employees:  1200
• Average number of contractor and temporary employees:  608
• Gross annual payroll & benefits:  $166,086,320
• Total goods & services purchased locally:  $230,637,400
• Total utilities:  $129,003086
• Total parish & state tax:  $26,138,000
• Total monetary donations:  $960,361
• Products:  The CITGO Lake Charles Refinery is a deep-conversion refinery, producing the full range of petroleum and petrochemical products:  gasolines (including the new federally-mandated reformulated gasolines), jet/turbine fuel, ultra low sulfur, MTBE, benzene, propylene, coke and sulfur.

    The CITGO Lake Charles Refinery was brought on line in 1944 as the Cities Service Oil Company Tutweiler Refinery in a joint venture with the U.S. Government to produce fuels (particularly aviation fuel) for the Allied war effort.  Since that time, the facility has evolved to become one of the premier refining facilities in the U.S. with a 425,000 barrel per day crude processing capacity, it is the fourth largest refinery in the nation.  The Lubricant and Wax Plant (former known as Cit-Con) was put into service in 1949.  Originally a joint venture between CITGO and Conoco, the facility gained 100% ownership by CITGO in 2002.  A major player in the lube oils business, the CITGO Lubricant and Wax Plant was the nation's leading producer of automatic transmission fluid and a major supplier of food-grade paraffin waxes.  In July 2008 CITGO’s Lubes and Wax Plant (CLAW), or CIT-CON as it is known to many, ceased operation after 59 years of exemplary service.

    Reporters and camera crews covering an emergency should go to the Media Room in the Security Operations Center, a conference room housed in the same building as our main security station, located at the main entrance of the refinery.

• EPA
• DEQ
• U.S. Coast Guard
• U.S. Corps of Engineers
• Louisiana State Police
• OSHA
• Louisiana State Fire Marshall

Complex-wide:

• 22 member contract fire department (Rural Metro) with automatically-activated pagers 
• 15 Shift Emergency Response Team members on site at all times 
• 80 member Volunteer ERT team with automatically-activated pagers  
• 10 member Volunteer ERT Support Team with automatically-activated pagers
• 16 Safety and Industrial Hygiene personnel trained in emergency response
• 12 member rescue team
• 12 HAZMAT technicians
• 2500 gpm pumper truck with 1000-gallon 1 X 3% Thunderstorm ATC foam tank
• 1500 gpm pumper truck with 2000-gallon 1 X 3% Thunderstorm ATC foam tank
• 2000 gallon Foam Tender with 1 X 3% Thunderstorm ATC foam
• Two Hose Reel Trucks with 3000' 10" hose & 4000' of 5" hose gallon ATC foam trailers
• One Hose Reel Trailer with 1000' 10"hose
• Two 2000 gpm portable diesel pumps
• Two 4000 gpm portable diesel pumps
• Two 2000 gpm portable hydrofoam monitors
• One 1000 gpm portable hydrofoam monitor
• One 1500 gpm trailer mounted Daspit monitor
• Two 1X6K portable hydrofoam monitors
• Four RAFT truck mobile 1500 gpm monitors w/300 gallon 1 X 3% Thunderstorm ATC foam tank
• One fully equipped HAZMAT response trailer
• One equipment trailer with 20 Scott 2.2 SCBA tanks & assorted high back pressure foam makers, nomex hoods, gloves, etc.
• One fully-equipped rescue trailer
• One hose trailer 4000 feet of 5" Storz hose
• ALS Ambulance (Rural Metro Fire Department)
• 20' Marine spill response boat
• 4000' of river containment boom

• CAER (automatically reports to 911)
• State Police HAZMAT
• DEQ
• EPA
• Coast Guard (if there are marine implications)

    Safe Operations
Safety is a primary business value at the CITGO Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex. Over the past several years, the facility has developed a reputation as one of the safest in the industry.  The National Petroleum and Refiners Association (NPRA) awarded CITGO in 2009 and 2010 the Merit Award, Gold Award, Achievement Hours, and the Achievement Years.  Criteria for the awards include:  Award for Meritorious Safety Performance, must have a Total Recordable Incidence Rate of 1.0 or less; Gold Award, must have achieved a 25% or greater reduction in total recordable incidence rate as compared to the average total recordable incidence rates for the previous three calendar years; Award for Safety Achievement-Hours, must have worked 1,000,000 or more hours without a lost workday case; Award for Safety Achievement-Years, must have worked more than one year without a lost workday case.

    
Employee safety awareness has long been a guiding principle. Programs such as the highly-successful Values Based Safety Process, where employees learn to make safety an integral part of every task, have helped make CITGO Lake Charles and the corporation as a whole, an industry safety leader. That is why year-in and year-out we are honored by NPRA for outstanding employee safety. Safety is simply part of our culture.

    Environmental Responsibility
Environmental stewardship is another commitment the CITGO Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex takes very seriously. Situated near Louisiana’s lush coastal wetlands, we are particularly mindful of our pledge to share the environment responsibly.

    
In recent years we have added to our operations two identical gasoline hydrotreaters at a cost of $210 million to reduce plant emissions and produce cleaner burning fuels. Most recently, the $100 million installation of three 230-foot-tall wet gas scrubbers tied to our fluid catalytic cracking units reduces particulate and sulfur dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. And, as part of its clean fuels Tier II project, CITGO constructed two gasoline hydrotreating units that gasoline and diesel which meets the low-sulfur gasoline specifications. None of these systems will produce a single gallon of gasoline, but they help us to protect our precious environmental resources from contamination.

    
Our employees are committed to being good environmental stewards, not just because it is the right thing to do, but because we live here too.

    Success and The Future
CITGO is strategically positioned with an assured supply of competitively-priced crude oil and other refinery feedstocks from PDVSA, coupled with the large volume of sweet crude it purchases from domestic producers, primarily in Texas and Louisiana. Its state-of-the-art refinery utilizes the most modern refining processes. It has a ready outlet of refined products and possesses not only the strength of an integrated major oil company, but also the flexibility, quickness and cost structure of an independent refiner and marketer. The company stands ready to meet the changing demands of today’s marketplace and the challenges that the future will assuredly bring.

    The Future Looks Bright for CITGO’s Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex
Even a facility as vibrant as the CITGO Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex must constantly grow and adapt as it looks to the future if it hopes to maintain its competitive edge and continue to meet America’s growing energy needs.

    Crude Vacuum Expansion Project and Tier II
In 2004, CITGO invested $500 million in the Crude Vacuum Expansion Project (CVEP)/Tier II Program to increase its crude processing capacity to 425,000 barrels per day (bpd), an increase of 105,000 bpd. The increased capacity made CITGO Lake Charles the 4th largest refinery in the nation.

    Cat Feed Hydrotreater to Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel Conversion
The Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex completed a cat feed hydrotreater conversion project in 2006. This $46 million project changed the service of the existing cat feed hydrotreater to diesel hydrotreating enabling it to produce 3.4 million gallons per day of ultra-low sulfur diesel for “on-road” use.

    CITGO Lake Charles has long made waste reduction a priority. Our source control program approaches the problem of waste disposal by striving to reduce waste at its source rather than focusing on its disposal. This involves monitoring and evaluating our processes at every stage to see to it that downstream waste is minimized.

    We at CITGO Lake Charles believe we operate in our community as a privilege, not a right. We understand that being a good corporate neighbor means not only running a safe, reliable and environmentally responsible facility, but also giving something back to the community. Through our employee volunteer organization Team CITGO, our employees, retirees, their families and friends have donated thousands of hours of their time and talents to numerous local charitable and community projects designed to improve the quality of life of Southwest Louisiana’s citizens.

    
Our employees are financially generous, as well. Year after year CITGO Lake Charles is a recognized leader in United Way giving with our most recent employee contribution of over $500,000. Local agencies have been supported with nearly $10 million since 1975.

    
As a corporation and as a manufacturing facility, the CITGO Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex also supports the Muscular Dystrophy Association by sponsoring Louisiana’s largest single-day MDA fundraiser each year, the CITGO/MDA Golf Classic. Since 1984, CITGO employees, contractors, and suppliers have raised nearly $2.5 million to help find a cure for this debilitating childhood disease.

    
CITGO Lake Charles actively supports education at all levels in Calcasieu Parish. In addition to the benefits that accrue to local public education as a result of the considerable tax base the facility constitutes, CITGO Lake Charles has participated as a partner in education for Calcasieu Parish public schools since 1988. Partner schools include:  Sulphur High School, Sulphur High-9th Grade Campus, E. K. Key Elementary, and the Career Center.  We also support McNeese State University with a regular endowment to the college Engineering and SOWELA Technical College’s Process Technology Program.