🚨BREAKING: MASSIVE fire at the Marathon Oil refinery in Texas City, TX — residents ordered to shelter in place!

Blaze erupted just after noon. Locals from Hwy 146 to Bay St told to seal up indoors.
Air monitoring underway. Cause unknown.

Maybe skip the BBQ tonight.#TexasCity… pic.twitter.com/DsbtIqf1lX

— Sarcasm Scoop (@sarcasm_scoop) June 14, 2025

I can't find what unit is on fire. Anybody know?

It's pretty amazing how different the environment can be from plant to plant.

KHOU said it was at 25th and 5th Avenue i believe.

From Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DK5ARV1A-bH/?igsh=anZ1dGR5YmsybTNr

That site is just cursed. So many issues no matter who is in charge of it.

RHU

Nobody Knows My Name said:

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While I understand your viewpoint, Marathon has put a ton of effort into modernizing and improving that entire facility. I'll leave it at that.

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I don't disagree, but the problem stems from culture. The number of incidents over the years surpasses most facilities. You can have all the physical and digital safeguards in the world, but if the administrative controls are ignored/fail, you still get incidents.

It's just my opinion, it's worth about what you're paying for it.

Your opinion is correct at every facility.

Doesn't do any good to have an SOP if you never look at it and try to operate from memory and tribal knowledge, and if nothing is ever enforced when that happens.

As a designer/ start up guy, the early design decisions can make or break things. There's a certain amount of play a plant can have.

Piping messes up lay out and you'll fight things the whole plant's life.

~egon

I guess it's ironic I'm going into a site very close to Marathon in Texas City to conduct a PHA. I am an operations supervisor and we take this stuff very seriously. Better not do anything or be caught outside with out a procedure in hand, on the console, or both.

*the PHA has been scheduled for weeks, just ironic timing. I'm surprised those of us on our sites ERT weren't called out for mutual aid, but I guess that's good news. I also just rolled Saturday morning from a week of rope rescue training in Baton Rouge.

just don't let procedures be the only barriers you identify in your PHA scenarios

JABQ04 said:

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I guess it's ironic I'm going into a site very close to Marathon in Texas City to conduct a PHA. I am an operations supervisor and we take this stuff very seriously. Better not do anything or be caught outside with out a procedure in hand, on the console, or both.

*the PHA has been scheduled for weeks, just ironic timing. I'm surprised those of us on our sites ERT weren't called out for mutual aid, but I guess that's good news. I also just rolled Saturday morning from a week of rope rescue training in Baton Rouge.

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marginally ironic. The timing is not ironic at all. It is purely coincidental.

It's kind of ironic because you'll be inspecting something near Marathon and the entire place **could** blow. Given that Marathon just experienced an incident, there's not much chance of something happening again back to back, but it ups the irony slightly that it could happen.

But not enough to make a post on a thread about a safety incident under the guise of irony when you just wanted to comment because it's relevant and in proximity to your livelihood.

Feel like this thread is created quarterly at this point

Who owned that plant prior to Marathon? I don't remember

BP. Marathon has spent a LOT of money and has some ongoing major projects going on there.

TX04Aggie said:

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BP. Marathon has spent a LOT of money and has some ongoing major projects going on there.

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I was a contractor in there for 3 years. This statement is true. They were improving the facility and the culture. Haven't been in there in 6 years, but I cannot imagine they changed course too drastically.

culture can't change that much if the plant leadership is largely the same

I was at a DuPont site for almost 3 years and they removed the plant manager after they had 2 or 3 employee (not contractor) incidents that destroyed a multi-year safety record. I think he 'transferred' to a much smaller site and was moving towards retirement rather than moving to bigger/better on his last assignment/job.

While the incidents weren't big, someone sprained an ankle on a step while walking and something with a forklift, they took it seriously.

The contractor safety was approaching 10k days, IIRC. They wanted it to be safe, as they dealt with UHP and chemicals.

~egon

Maybe just make everyone watch a few more safety videos and nobody will get hurt. If that doesn't work, have all the contractors narc on each other. If that doesn't work, give out an award to the operator who finds the most safety infractions.

Oh for sure. I've worked in the industry long enough to know how it works, unfortunately.

i'm guessing it's the same dupont site which became famous in a CSB video.

yeah, replacing the plant manager is probably a big enough wakeup call for everyone.

No. Down in Victoria.

The ankle thing was tripping on a curb near a door. I agree that wasn't serious (as say, dropping a water bottle off a NH3 tank), but the bigger issue was 'dinging' the safety record, which, I believe, several people higher up the food chain depended on their bonus for.

That is a site that was bult in the 50's. I think most of the demons were exorcised years ago.

~egon

Chemical Safety Board to disappear under Trump's orders | Grist


Looks like Marathon won't be getting the CSB treatment.

I had no idea that was on the table in the bill.

surely that won't actually happen

Dr. Doctor said:

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Chemical Safety Board to disappear under Trump's orders | Grist


Looks like Marathon won't be getting the CSB treatment.

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Louisiana people sure do love *****ing about the anything plant related

Dr. Doctor said:

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Chemical Safety Board to disappear under Trump's orders | Grist


Well nuts.
I enjoy the videos during lunch.


Looks like Marathon won't be getting the CSB treatment.

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Hope the Senate comes to their senses and funds the CSB in their version.

I think even the oil and gas lobby would be in favor of it

TX04Aggie said:

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BP. Marathon has spent a LOT of money and has some ongoing major projects going on there.

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that's right, thanks.