Ben Lane, CIPRNA event manager met Sterling Neblett, Vice President & General Manager, CITGO Lake Charles refinery.
The organizers of CIPRNA 2024 are delighted to offer, in cooperation with CITGO and CISA Region VI, the opportunity to visit the CITGO Lake Charles refinery, and discover how the company develops and implements its resiliency planning to ensure security of operations and supplies. With limited spaces available, this Site Visit is offered on a first come first served basis – please book your place on the site visit today to secure your place on this interesting and exciting site visit. See https://ciprna-expo.com/buy-tickets/
Ben Lane:
Lake Charles is situated in quite a vulnerable location on the Gulf Coast and the area has experienced numerous hurricanes, including Hurricane Laura in 2020, which caused much local damage – how does CITGO plan for such natural disaster events?
Sterling Neblett:
The Lake Charles Refinery has a robust hurricane emergency response plan that covers preparations prior to the storm, what happens during the storm, and procedures to inspect and restart the refinery after the storm passes, all with the overarching goal of safety first for our people. Back-to-back hurricanes hit the CITGO Lake Charles Refinery in 2020, so we keep our response plan and procedures updated and ready.
Hurricanes cause damage in three ways, and our facility needs to be ready for all:
- Wind – our systems are designed and built with potential winds in mind. Personnel cannot work in high wind conditions, so our shut down plans in advance of a storm take this into account.
- Rain – We design our drainage and water treatment systems for historical probable rain events, whether related to a hurricane or not. This takes into consideration the topography and size of our facility. We have constructed tanks on our facility with the sole purpose of collecting rainfall runoff to prevent any of the materials we handle from escaping the area.
- Surge – our facility is situated on a natural bluff, with most of our site located above typical surge levels.
Ben Lane:
Many local and national industries rely on the services of CITGO. How does it work with its stakeholders/partners to ensure continuity of supply in such extreme circumstances/events?
Sterling Neblett:
Through our Business Continuity Plan, we work with various teams, including supply and trading and our Corpus Christi refinery, to minimize disruptions. As you know, these types of supply disruptions can increase prices for customers – no one wants that. As we have experienced, it can take many days to restore electrical service in the aftermath of a hurricane, and these types of utilities are required for us to ship products to our national and international customers. To assist our local first responders in these situations, we provide fuel that is stored in our tanks until proper services are restored.
Ben Lane:
How often are plans against the threats of disasters (whether natural or man-made) or terrorism type threats, including cyber threats, reviewed and how do you aim to improve on those plans – what goals are deemed to be an improvement on a plan?
Sterling Neblett:
We review our hurricane plan annually, incorporating changes that are learned from each hurricane season – even if no storm affects us. We also conduct spill response drills and training – occasionally with industry and government partners – so that we can be prepared if ever needed. Regarding cyber threats, we recently conducted a tabletop exercise with senior management with the goal of testing and strengthening our cyber incident response plan.
Ben Lane:
Did CITGO learn from the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in 2021, and how did it change its program against cyber threats?
Sterling Neblett:
The Colonial incident reinforced our existing efforts to strengthen our cyber defense and detection capabilities. While we already had a cyber plan, we have devoted more time and resources in our ability to respond and recover quickly should a cyber incident occur.
Ben Lane:
Thank you. We look forward to the site visit to CITGO on March 12th 2024 – during the CIPRNA event in Lake Charles.
About Sterling Neblett
Sterling Neblett was named Vice President & General Manager of the Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex in March 2022. Sterling started his CITGO career in 1990 at the Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex where he held several engineering and logistics positions. Numerous economics, information technology and logistics positions followed at the corporate offices and Lake Charles culminating in his position as General Manager of Refinery Optimization and Excellence in Houston. In 2021 he was appointed General Manager of Engineering and Business Services at the Lemont Refinery. Sterling holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Arkansas.