Citgo guilty on US environmental laws; to appeal

28 June 2007 00:28  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--A federal jury in Texas found refining company Citgo guilty of two felony criminal violations of the US Clean Air Act, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said on Thursday.

The Corpus Christi jury found Citgo guilty of on two counts of operating two open top tanks, without installing the proper emission controls required by federal law at its Corpus Christi East plant refinery, the department said.

The tanks were used as oil and water separators but were not equipped with either a fixed-roof, vented to a control device or a floating-roof, and that oil water separators upstream of the tanks never worked to remove the oil from the wastewater before the oil entered the tanks, the department said.

For nearly 10 years, Citgo removed oil from the surface of tanks with vacuum trucks and did not take the steps necessary to install proper emission control equipment to prevent the emission of volatile organic compounds, including benzene, from the tanks, the department said.

Philip Vrazel, an environmental manager, was also indicted along with Citgo last year and was awaiting trial on 9 July on four felony counts of violations of the Clean Air Act, one felony count of false statements and five misdemeanour counts of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

The sentencing phase for Citgo is scheduled for 18 October. The Justice Department said Citgo faces fines of up to $500,000/count, or twice the gross economic gain (whichever is greater) and five years of probation.

Citgo said it will appeal the two counts related to not having roofs on waste water equalisation tanks. The company said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations do not require roofs.

Citgo also said even though it was not required to do so, it voluntarily initiated the construction of roofs on the equalisation tanks in 2004.

The Corpus Christi complex has a refined products capacity of 156,000 bbl/day, according to global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing.

Chemical production at the plant is estimated to be 300,000 tonne/year of benzene, 115,000 tonne/year of toluene and 135,000 tonne/year of propylene, according to ICIS pricing.

By: Brian Balboa
+1 713 525 2653

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