Cherry blossoms through history
Roger Quiggle remembers the old days, the wet-chemistry days of assuring product quality before the advent of computers and high-tech instrumentation.
George Fletcher remembers when the parking lot was a big hole in the ground, and the day he counted 35 cranes hard at work.
Laboratory technicians Quiggle and Fletcher in May celebrated 35 years of service at BP's Cherry Point refinery, a 324 hectare (800 acre) facility tucked some 10km (six miles) below the Canadian border in Washington state.
They are charter members of the refinery—among a handful of employees who have been around since the refinery processed its first barrel of oil in July 1971.
Compared to Quiggle and Fletcher, director of public affairs Mike Abendhoff is a relative newcomer as he stands on the actual stretch of ground known as Cherry Point.
Light winds ripple through 18 metre (60 foot) pines and poplars on this thin corner of land bordering the waters of Puget Sound.
Not far away are roads with names like Daffodil Terrace, Hawk Ridge Road, and Valley View Avenue. Nearly 40 years ago, industry experts were confirming ARCO's discovery of vast amounts of oil on Alaska's North Slope (ANS).
During the past 35 years the refinery has expanded from its original capacity of 100,000 barrels of crude a day—to current runs of 225,000 barrels and more. That's 35 years as one of the last grass-roots refineries built in the U.S. and one of the key refineries build to handle the heavy volume of crude out of Alaska.
A variety of factors delayed construction of the Trans-Alaska pipeline and first deliveries of Alaskan oil. It would, in fact, be 1977 before the first shipload of ANS crude arrived at Cherry Point. While Cherry Point's first oil—a veteran like Fletcher remembers it well—came in by Trans Mountain Pipeline from Alberta, Canada, the refinery got into a groove with a consistent supply of Alaskan crude beginning in the late 1970s.
That spurred the growth that has led to Cherry Point today providing a fifth of the gasoline market share in Washington and Oregon and some 85% of the jet fuel at busy Sea-Tac airport in Seattle. Cherry Point also serves as the largest West Coast supplier of jet and diesel fuel to the US military.
In the wake of declining ANS production, Cherry Point's ability to expand its processing capacity and run various crudes has been instrumental in maintaining its leadership role. "Here's what $85 million will buy you," says Abendhoff, pointing out a new ultra-low-sulfur diesel unit. Next, it's "here's what $115 million will buy you" as he moves past the new low-sulfur gasoline unit.
"We pride ourselves on our flexibility to process different crudes—from Venezuela, from Canada, from the Middle East," he explains. "We're definitely not putting all our eggs in one basket."
Abendhoff touches on the lessons the plant's 650 employees have learned from such flexibility, including the impact of different crudes on catalysts, on finished jet diesel quality, and on intervals between maintenance efforts. It's an ongoing tribute to Cherry Point's ability, from the very beginning, to stay flexible and deal with whatever issues arise.
As director of government and public affairs at Cherry Point for the past five years, Abendhoff often finds himself smack in the middle of those issues.
"As the face of BP in the community, I find I'm always dealing with a lot of diverse matters, lots of different activities,” he explains. "But one of the best parts of the job is that it really is lots of fun."
Gaining Support
It's hard to imagine how much fun it was over the last four years as Cherry Point sought to obtain permits and approvals for construction of a new 500-megawatt cogeneration power plant. But all permits have recently been obtained, BP management has allocated necessary funds, and the project—now in the midst of much paperwork and construction tendering—is on its way to becoming a reality.
"Of course," Abendhoff adds, "as soon as one issue is resolved, it seems like there's always another one right behind it." Like a developer's plan to build 1,000 homes—some within 180 metres (600 feet) of the refinery—on land zoned for heavy industrial use. "It just didn't make sense," he notes. "It was a real project—make that a struggle—to keep it zoned industrial." A local coalition of businesses, including BP and a nearby ConocoPhillips refinery, has so far been successful in getting their message across to local officials.
"It's easy to trace the real growth and success of Cherry Point directly to the people who work here," says business unit leader Rick Porter, who these days is focusing squarely on a number of huge investments that loom ahead for Cherry Point.
They include the cogeneration plant and a Canadian extra heavy oil plant. "The amount of investment over the next 10-plus years will likely be in the billions of dollars," he explains. "The changes to the plant and to our teams will be tremendous over this time period—and I have nothing but confidence in our people to make it all happen smoothly."
Focus on Safety, Environment
One person charged with keeping things running smoothly is health, safety and environment manager Karen Payne, who picked up her degree in chemical engineering from the University of Idaho in 1985, moved to Cherry Point a few months later, and has been at the plant ever since. For Payne, it was an easy decision that has since provided a continuing challenge. From a health and safety standpoint, she identifies an evolution in safety systems over the years, BP's focus on broad peer advice, and the value of external lessons learned.
A concern for the environment, meanwhile, is a given for almost anyone living or working in the Pacific Northwest.
"We work in a beautiful location," she explains. "We're good corporate citizens, and I'm always proud when I'm out in the community talking about how BP likes to differentiate itself—with its stand on greenhouse gases, for example."
An environmentalist herself, Payne takes a keen interest in Cherry Point's 35-year anniversary and how it nearly coincides with the first Earth Day in 1970—what she calls "the dawn" of the US environmental movement.
"We're trying to strike a balance, creating energy for a vast area of the country and at the same time exercising significant environmental care," she adds. "Many people have a preconceived idea that we could do a lot more—and then, when they actually become aware of all the things we are doing, they end up amazed at our efforts to do things right."
Those efforts include a conservation area of 70 hectares (180 acres) of refinery property to the Whatcom Land Trust as a nesting ground for blue herons—as many as 400 of them. They also include a successful partnership with a local non-profit organization to bring salmon runs back to Terrell Creek, just north of the refinery property, and protection of the Cherry Point herring.
Payne smiles as she borrows a line from BP colleagues who market the goodies available at the company's am/pm stores: "It's too much good stuff."
Outside, a hawk circles lazily through the mid-morning overcast sky.
by Dave Orman
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Cherry blossoms through history
