Environmental Stewardship

AFPM members are dedicated to safeguarding the environment and the well-being of the communities in which they operate. Through rigorous adherence to environmental regulations, innovative technologies and sustainable practices, these companies strive to minimize their ecological footprint.

Operating More Sustainably

Dedicated to doing more with less, AFPM members are implementing practices to reduce their energy-use intensity, lower their critical emissions profiles and adopt renewable energy where possible.

The U.S. fuel and petrochemical industries are consistently reducing localized air emissions.

AFPM members are committed to doing more with less — and that includes freshwater use. The fuel and petrochemical industries are developing cutting-edge water treatment and recycling technologies to reduce their reliance on freshwater.

AFPM members look for ways to reuse, recycle and repurpose waste throughout their operations.

AFPM members prioritize the conservation and reclamation of the land and ecosystems around them.

Air Quality

Our members employ advanced monitoring systems and innovative technologies to consistently reduce localized air emissions.

ExxonMobil completed a $230.5 million, three-year modernization initiative at its Baton Rouge, Louisiana refinery that included new technology to reduce the refinery’s emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by 10%. 1
Since 2019, Phillips 66 reduced its air emissions — which include sulfur and nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and VOCs — by 23% across its refining assets. From 2022 to 2023, it reduced its air emissions by 7%. 2
Chevron has decreased its VOC emissions by 44% and its nitrogen oxide emissions by 21% since 2019. 3
Marathon Petroleum’s Anacortes, Washington refinery completed a project to incorporate selective noncatalytic reduction technology, where waste ammonia is rerouted for injection into the carbon monoxide boiler to react with oxygen and nitrogen oxide to produce nitrogen and water vapor. The project has led to a roughly 31% reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions at the site. Initiatives like this one have helped Marathon reduce criteria pollutants by 26% since 2016. 4

Marathon Petroleum cut nitrogen oxide emissions at its Anacortes, Washington refinery by 31%.

Water

Our members are expanding their water treatment and reuse capabilities to save billions of gallons of water in their operations.

In Washington state, Par Pacific reduces the amount of freshwater it uses by treating water used during one cooling process and then turning it into steam to use in a second process.5
Chevron has completed multiple projects to reduce freshwater withdrawals, including an initiative to detect and repair steam and condensate leaks at its Richmond Refinery in California and a project to replace irrigated turfgrass with drought-tolerant landscaping at its Salt Lake Refinery in Utah.6
Dow piloted a new process that cleans hopper cars with high-pressure air rather than water, saving approximately 936,000 gallons of water during an eight-month period.7
Working with its customers, Ecolab helped conserve 226 billion gallons of water, which is the equivalent to the drinking water needs of 782 million people.8

Marathon Petroleum’s Los Angeles refinery saved about 328 million gallons of fresh water by increasing the cooling water iron specification and saved an additional 99 million gallons by improving the level controls on the cooling tower basins.9
Phillips 66 optimized the operation of its cooling towers and boilers by defining and standardizing key metrics across all sites and developing online dashboards to visualize and monitor performance indicators. This enables its engineers and operators to detect inefficiencies and issues more quickly, thus reducing water, energy and chemical demands while increasing reliability.10
Since 2014, Flint Hills Resources has reduced annual wastewater nitrate releases by more than 1,700,000 pounds as a result of improved process configuration and process control at its Pine Bend, Minnesota and Corpus Christi, Texas refineries.11

Waste

Our members continuously enhance their processes and forge partnerships to minimize waste and uncover reuse opportunities.

In 2023, Phillips 66’s tank cleanout methods conserved over 229,000 gallons of water and generated over 1.5 million gallons of waste-derived fuel for manufacturing processes.12
ExxonMobil’s global network of lubricants blending and packaging plants divert more than 90% of its waste from the landfill using strategies ranging from the repair and reuse of container pallets to an advanced distillation process to recover laboratory solvent. Collectively, these efforts have led ExxonMobil to redeploy to new, productive uses more than 50,000 tons of waste produced each year.13
Ergon partnered with RoadRunner Recycling to improve its waste management, which has already resulted in over 333 metric tons of waste diverted and 1,153 metric tons of CO₂e saved.14
Placid Refining continually evaluates by-products and residual materials to identify secondary markets with the goal of fostering recycling and reuse while maximizing resource utilization. This strategy has allowed Placid to greatly reduce waste generation from the Port Allen refinery.15
Nearly 19,000 metric tons of spent caustic from Marathon Petroleum refineries were reused by the paper goods industry, obviating the need for manufacturing new chemical inputs and thereby reducing the associated emissions to the paper manufacturing process.16
W.R. Grace actively works to minimize the generation of hazardous waste, including by partnering with recycling facilities and vendors to reclaim spent solvents and metals, reclaim and recycle mercury, and minimize the disposal of waste drums. Grace also recovers, reuses and resells byproducts such as high-concentration sodium aluminate and silica residues.17
96% of all Valero refinery hazardous and exempted waste was recycled in 2023.18

Land

Our members continue to work with nonprofits and community organizations to foster biodiversity within our fencelines and in neighboring communities.

Marathon Petroleum donated $190,000 for environmental conservation initiatives with the Zia Pueblo of New Mexico and the Osage Nation of Oklahoma. Funds for the Zia Pueblo addressed and prevented environmental issues after the annual monsoon season resulted in significant soil erosion. Funds for the Osage Nation, meanwhile, supported the environmental remediation of a former rail yard and the creation of an outdoor health complex.19
Ecolab is working with The Nature Conservancy to conserve and restore 10,000 acres of the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, which is home to numerous wildlife and plant species as well as serving as a critical habitat for over 200 species of migrating birds.20
Over the last decade, the CITGO Caring For Our Coast program has resulted in over $8 million21 in donations, more than 200,000 hours of volunteer time, nearly 1 million trees and grasses planted, more than 520,000 pounds of trash collected and 12,000 acres restored.22
Eastman provided grant funding and employee volunteers to bring to life a network of pollinator gardens, with over 5,000 square feet of gardens at four elementary schools in Kingsport, Tennessee. The project was recently recognized by Keep America Beautiful with an Innovation Award.23
Chevron’s Pascagoula Refinery partnered with Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks to donate four carbon steel structures from a refinery project to use in creating artificial reefs offshore. Chevron also donated $30,000 to the group to support the building of the reefs.24

ExxonMobil is a charter member of the Wildlife Habitat Council, and has undertaken 32 habitat, species and education projects at 14 company sites.2 5
Phillips 66, Flint Hills Resources, Plains All American Pipeline and Energy Transfer all support Ducks Unlimited’s mission to preserve wildlife habitat. In 2023, Phillips 66 provided Ducks Unlimited with a gift of $300,000 to help build ZooMontana’s new Foster Waterfowl Refuge, the latest of more than 30 projects they have partnered on during the past decade that resulted in about $4 million donated to conservation efforts for more than 35,000 acres of wetlands.26 For over 30 years, Flint Hills Resources has worked with Ducks Unlimited to preserve wetlands and conserve habitat in the upper Midwest and Texas.27 Plains All American Pipeline, meanwhile, entered into a three-year agreement with Ducks Unlimited Canada to advance the conservation of the McIntyre Ranch in Alberta, helping to preserve one of the largest wetlands and prairie grasslands remaining in Canada and protecting the many animal species that thrive there.28 And Energy Transfer has committed $5 million to Ducks Unlimited, helping to conserve over 8,500 acres of coastal wetlands and grasslands in Louisiana and Ohio.29

Restoring the Land

The U.S. pipeline system spans more than 2.6 million miles30 , but chances are, you probably don’t even notice it. Why is that? Most of that pipeline is hidden safely underground, with meticulous care to limit disturbance. And many pipeline companies, including AFPM members, go the next step to restore the land after construction.

Matt Isom, Vice President of Engineering for North America at Plains All American, is walking the talk as a pipeline company employee who also owns land with three active pipelines running through it. Matt’s land, just outside of Midland in West Texas, would have once been shortgrass prairie. Like much of West Texas though, soil erosion and invasive plant species like mesquite and other shrubs have over time changed the landscape.

“When I look at the pipelines and what they do, they’re helping part of my conservation effort. Working with the pipeline companies that have installed them gives me an opportunity to return the land back to where it was before — grasslands.”

Like Plains, ONEOK prioritizes habitat restoration, which includes determining the right seed mixes for the area as well as carefully removing and storing the top layer of soil during installation to restore the land to its original condition following construction. During 2023, ONEOK restored nearly 400 acres of habitat related to pipeline projects completed during that year.31

U.S. pipeline companies also work with nonprofits and other outside groups to restore habitats, implement reforestation projects, and evolve practices for pipeline operations and land management.

In some of the busiest oil and natural gas fields in the U.S., Marathon Petroleum’s midstream segment, MPLX, is collaborating with nonprofit Texan by Nature, founded by former first lady Laura Bush, to elevate habitat restoration and water conservation. Texan by Nature is supporting a 2024 pilot program with MPLX’s Gathering and Processing (G&P) component that aims to increase conservation through use of dark-sky lighting, recycling water, restoring native vegetation and restoring playas.32

“Pipelines are among the safest and most efficient means to move our in-demand energy products around the country,” said Rob Benedict, AFPM’s Vice President of Petrochemicals and Midstream. “And, AFPM members like Plains All American, ONEOK and Marathon Petroleum ensure that pipeline installations cause minimal disruption to the environment, actively engage in land conservation and restoration, and strive to be responsible neighbors.”

“At Plains, when we put a pipe in, we maintain it and we care about it. It’s all driven to protect the environment and the community.”

Matt Isom, Vice President of Engineering for North America at Plains All American