Bay Area Houston facilities earn 4 awards

BAY AREA HOUSTON, Texas (June 28, 2010) – LyondellBasell’s Bayport Choate Plant, Bayport Underwood Plant and its Equistar Chemicals pipeline operations recently won four Caring for Texas awards from the Texas Chemical Council for outstanding safety, environmental performance, emergency response and community involvement in 2009.

Nine of the company’s Texas facilities won a total of 11 awards for 2009 performance, including a Best in Texas for Safety. “LyondellBasell is committed to the highest standards in safety and environmental performance and to building strong relationships within the communities that surround our facilities,” said Sam Smolik, LyondellBasell’s vice president for health, safety, environment and operational excellence. “It is an honor to receive these awards, which show the dedication of our employees to safe and responsible operations.” The Bayport Choate Plant earned the Distinguished Service Award for Quality Safety Performance for its demonstrated improvement in its injury and illness incident rate for 2009 when compared to the previous three years and an honorable mention in the Caring for Texas category, which salutes outstanding performance in community service, emergency response, safety, pollution prevention and security.

The Bayport Underwood Plant was awarded a Caring for Texas Award, while LyondellBasell’s pipeline operations received a Certificate of Achievement in Caring for Texas. LyondellBasell has a network of pipe that extends from Mt. Belvieu to Corpus Christi and includes two storage facilities in Markham and Mt. Belvieu. The pipeline division is headquartered in Bayport and has pipeline through La Porte, Bayport, Clear Lake and Friendswood.

This is the second recent award for the pipeline group, which also captured a Friend of Education Award in May from Clear Creek ISD’s North Pointe Elementary PTA. Other LyondellBasell facilities capturing TCC awards include Chocolate Bayou, Mt. Belvieu and both plants in the Channelview Complex, all in the greater Houston area; and the Matagorda and Markham facilities in Matagorda County. The Matagorda polymers plant earned the Best in Texas in Safety among facilities with 61-200 employees.

The Caring for Texas program is sponsored by TCC to recognize petrochemical facilities’ exemplary achievements in plant operation performance categories, and commitment to their employees and surrounding communities. “Through our different awards programs, TCC strives to recognize those who have demonstrated efforts to improve our industry through safety, community awareness, emergency response and overall dedication to the chemical industry,” said Hector Rivero, TCC president and chief executive officer.
Approximately 80 awards were awarded to members of the Texas chemical industry on June 10.

Caring for Texas award applications are reviewed by a combination of community leaders and industry representatives across the state. To qualify for an application review, petrochemical sites must have operated the year without an environmental or safety event that impacted the community, engaged in community outreach activities, made available its environmental and safety performance reporting system to the community, had no fatalities and be a TCC member in good standing.