NPRA National Safety Conference Expects Record Crowd at Safety Banquet Recognizing Industry Safety Progress; ExxonMobil Chemical Co., Valero Refining Co. Win Highest Safety Award.

NEW ORLEANS -- NPRA, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, today recognized individual facilities in the petroleum refining and petrochemical manufacturing industries and also contractors supporting these industries for their excellent record of safe operations during calendar year 2004. The awards presentation took place before a record attendance at the Safety Awards Banquet held as part of NPRA's National Safety Conference May 11 - 12, 2005 in New Orleans, LA.

William R. Klesse, NPRA Chairman of the Board and Chief Operating Officer, Valero Energy Corporation, presented 706 awards to 86 refineries, 99 petrochemical plants, and 126 sites with contractor recognition. This represents 74 Regular member companies with refining and petrochemical facilities and 78 Associate member industry contractors.

NPRA's President Bob Slaughter said, "Protecting the health and safety of employees and communities and safeguarding the environment are fundamental values of all NPRA members. We believe that the strong turnout for this year's safety banquet, up over 60% this year, speaks to the dedication and vigilance of the men and women who are on the front lines of operations at the nation's refineries and petrochemical facilities. NPRA's comprehensive safety program -- including the safety awards program, the National Safety Conference and the annual injuries and illnesses survey -- helps to promote accident prevention and safety best practices. It is a positive factor in the continuous improvement being made.

"NPRA members have shown a continuous drop in recordable incidence rates. Since 1995, the total recordable incidence rate (TRIR) for refining members dropped from 3.0 to 1.16 in 2004. Since 1995, the TRIR for petrochemical members dropped from 2.2 to 0.95 in 2004. Last year, 36 NPRA member facilities worked the entire year without a single recordable case. Our members' goal is the elimination of all work-related injuries and illnesses. They are making excellent progress and will continue their commitment to employee safety and facility security."

The Association's most prestigious award, the Distinguished Safety Award, was presented to three recipients this year: ExxonMobil Chemical Co.'s Baton Rouge Polyolefins Plant and Mont Belvieu Plastics Plant and Valero Refining Co.'s Wilmington Refinery. This is the third DSA for ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge Polyolefins Plant, the fourth DSA for the Mont Belvieu Plastics Plant and the first award for Valero's Wilmington Refinery. These locations were accorded special recognition for attaining a superior level of safety performance based on a thorough evaluation by a Selection Committee of industry safety professionals of each facility's safety program and commitment, as well as their current and past safety records.

The Association honored two facilities with the Distinguished Safety Award Honorable Mention, presented to a site 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. In 2004, the facilities that received this recognition were Placid Refinery Company LLC and Sasol North America, Inc.'s Lake Charles Chemical Complex.

The Award 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 recordkeeping requirements as defined by law and entered on the OSHA 300A form.

The Award for Meritorious Safety Performance was presented to 142 facilities operated by NPRA member companies for achieving a total recordable incidence rate of 1.2 or less while working a minimum of 50,000 man hours for the 2004 calendar year. Gold Award certificates were presented to 101 facilities for achieving at least a 25% reduction in the total recordable incidence rate during the 2004 calendar year as compared to the average total recordable incidence rate for the three previous calendar years.

Recipients of the Award for Safety Achievement included 119 facilities for operating one or more years without a lost workday case involving days away from work. Seventy-one facilities also received the Award for Safety Achievement for operating 1,000,000 or more employee hours without a lost workday case involving days away from work.

The Contractor Award for Meritorious Safety Performance is awarded to process area contractors on a per site basis who are nominated by a Regular refinery or petrochemical facility member. The Meritorious Safety Performance Award for operating facilities are used for the Contractor Merit Award: A contractor must achieve a total recordable incidence rate of 1.2 or less for the 2004 calendar year at an individual site with the qualifier that the contractor must have worked a minimum of 20,000 hours at that client site. In 2004, 268 awards were presented to 78 companies for outstanding contractor safety performance at 126 facilities.

The presentation of the NPRA safety awards is part of a comprehensive safety awards program developed by the Association's Fire and Accident Prevention Committee to promote accident prevention in the petroleum refining and petrochemical manufacturing industries, and to publicly recognize the excellent record of safety in operations which the industry has compiled.

NPRA is a national trade association whose members include the owners and operators of virtually all U.S. refining capacity as well as most U.S. petrochemical manufacturers.