ExxonMobil and Abu Dhabi

7
What we do
when storms hit hard
Second of two parts
Soon after Hurricane Gustav
made a surprise, inland assault
on Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
last September, Tom Moeller,
ExxonMobil director of refining,
Americas, arrived in the city to
survey the storm damage that
had shut down operations at the
company’s second-largest U.S.
refinery. En route from the airport,
he observed long lines of anxious
motorists at the few service stations
that had the fuel, electrical
power and staffing to remain
open for business.
“Scenes like that illustrate the
role our industry plays in supporting
the everyday infrastructure
of society,” says Moeller. “It’s
why we needed to get back up
and running quickly.”
When hurricanes hit, restoring
normal operations is a guiding
principle throughout ExxonMobil’s
downstream business – from
refining and supply, to pipeline
and marine transportation, to
John Palaszczuk leads a hurricane
preparation drill at the
Fairfax, Virginia, headquarters of
ExxonMobil’s Refining, Supply,
Fuels Marketing and Lubricants/
Specialties organizations.
Story by Shelley Moore Christiansen and Richard Cunningham
From Texas to Louisiana, the Gulf Coast region
is home to the nation’s highest concentration of
refining and supply operations, a host of terminals,
the origination points of the nation’s largest
pipeline systems and extensive fuels-marketing
networks. It has also been landfall for some of
history’s most destructive hurricanes.
fuels and lubes marketing.
As storms approach,
ExxonMobil’s goal is to keep
operations in the region going
wherever they safely can.
Where business is interrupted,
company teams work quickly
to restore product supply – or
develop alternate, interim solutions.
And they do it on a foundation
of rigorous planning and
preparation that has repeatedly
kept ExxonMobil a step ahead
of the industry in times of crisis.
Lessons learned
Taking lessons learned from
such storms as Gustav and Ike
in 2008 and Katrina and Rita in
2005, the company’s hurricaneresponse
teams routinely conduct
training and other emergency-response
scenarios.
They fine-tune day-to-day
storm watch action plans and
update employee tracking data
to make sure workers are safe
if they have to evacuate. Team
members conduct simulation
Photo by Robert Seale