NPRA National Safety Conference Convenes in Austin, TX: Awards Banquet Honors Industry Safety Achievements; Placid Refining, Marathon Petroleum and ExxonMobil Chemical Earn Distinguished Safety Award.

AUSTIN -- NPRA, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, today recognized facilities in the petroleum refining and petrochemical manufacturing industries, and contractors supporting the industries, for outstanding achievements in safe operations for the calendar year 2005. James Mahoney, NPRA Chairman of the Board and Vice President, Operations, Koch Industries, presented the awards to the facilities' representatives during the annual Safety Awards Banquet, as part of NPRA's National Safety Conference May 3 - 4, 2006, in Austin, TX.

NPRA President Bob Slaughter said, "Ensuring the safety of employees, contractors and communities in all industry endeavors is always the highest priority for NPRA members. The National Safety Conference (NSC) recognizes outstanding safety achievements and encourages best practices for the safety and well-being of employees, the public and the environment. The NSC is especially relevant this year, given the events of last summer in the wake of the hurricanes that devastated the Gulf Coast. Many refineries sustained serious damage; however, to the great credit of the refining and petrochemical industries' employees, facilities were back on-line and operating safely and efficiently in a relatively short period of time."

The Distinguished Safety Award (DSA), NPRA's highest accolade, was presented to Placid Refining Company's Port Allen, LA, refinery, Marathon Petroleum Company's Catlettsburg, KY, refinery, and ExxonMobil Chemical Company's Baton Rouge, LA, Polyolefins Plant, which is the recipient of this award for an unprecedented fourth consecutive year. Since the NPRA safety awards program began in 1982, no other company has earned the coveted DSA for four consecutive years.

The Association honored the Shell Chemical Company's Geismer Plant with the Distinguished Safety Award Honorable Mention for 2005. The Honorable Mention award is presented to a facility that has passed the initial screening criteria of the DSA application, exhibited excellent safety performance and program innovation, and showed promise of achieving DSA status in the future.

The Awards for Meritorious Safety Performance, Gold Award, Safety Achievement Award, and Contractor Award for Meritorious Safety Performance are based on records kept for employees in accordance with OSHA record-keeping requirements, as defined by law and entered on the OSHA 300A form.

The Award for Meritorious Safety Performance was presented to 163 facilities operated by NPRA Member companies for achieving a total recordable incidence rate of 1.2 or less for the 2005 calendar year. Gold Award certificates were presented to 117 facilities for achieving at least a 25% reduction in the total recordable incidence rate during the 2005 calendar year as compared with the average total recordable incidence rate for the three previous calendar years.

Recipients of the Award for Safety Achievement included 122 facilities for operating one of more years without a lost workday case involving days away from work. Eighty facilities also received the Award for Safety Achievement for operating 1,000,000 or more hours without a lost workday case involving days away from work.

The Contractor Award for Meritorious Safety Performance is awarded to contractors on a per site basis who are nominated by a regular refinery or petrochemical facility member. A contractor must have achieved a total recordable incidence rate of 1.2 or less for the 2005 calendar year at an individual site, with the qualifier that the contractor must have worked a minimum of 20,000 employee hours at that client site. For 2005, 262 awards were presented to 63 Member companies for outstanding contractor safety performance at 114 facilities.

The presentation of the NPRA Safety Award is part of a comprehensive safety awards program developed by the association's Safety & Health Committee to promote accident prevention in the petroleum refining and petrochemical manufacturing industries, and to publicly recognize the excellent record of safety in operation that the industry has achieved.

NPRA is a national trade association with more than 450 member companies, including virtually all U.S. refiners and petrochemical manufacturers.