Key Points 

• Marathon Petroleum Corporation set a company record for recognition at this year’s American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers safety awards.
• For the first time in the same year, three of its refineries earned the highest safety honor, which reflects performance in the top 1% of the industry.
• Three other Marathon refineries were also recognized for their 2024 safety performance, and the company was highlighted for a technical innovation.

May 30, 2025 /3BL/ - Only four facilities earned the highest honor at this year’s American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) safety awards, and three of them are from Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC). The company’s refineries in Detroit, Michigan; El Paso, Texas; and Kenai, Alaska, received the Distinguished Safety Award (DSA), which is reserved for facilities with performance in the top 1% of the industry.

“These awards reflect how strongly our facilities are adhering to company tenets that promote an incident-free workplace,” said MPC Refining Personal Safety & Security Senior Director Fritz Kin. “Safe and reliable operations come only by focusing daily on protecting our people and the communities where we operate.” 

The DSA recognized the sites for a sustained, exemplary level of safety performance, program innovation and safety leadership throughout 2024. The winners were selected from a pool of finalists after site representatives went through face-to-face interviews with a committee of industry safety experts. 

In addition to the DSA winners, MPC’s Catlettsburg, Kentucky, refinery won AFPM’s Elite Silver Award for safety performance in the top 10% of the industry. Also, MPC’s Robinson, Illinois, and Salt Lake City, Utah, refineries received the Safety Achievement Award for maintaining exemplary safety standards. Additionally, MPC’s Refining Safety and Refining IT groups earned an Honorable Mention Award for innovation that recognized deployment of a chatbot tool to enhance safety. 

“We are extremely proud of our teams because we know the focus that’s required to reach this level of excellence and set yourself apart from industry peers,” said MPC Refining Process Safety Management Senior Director Marcus Garvin. “Our employees truly put our core value of safety and environmental stewardship into action through consistent practices that reinforce safe work execution.”  

AFPM’s awards reflect both personal safety performance and process safety performance. Among other award criteria, eligible facilities must not have a single recordable injury involving a life-critical task – an activity with the potential to cause serious harm to individuals; severe equipment damage; or a negative environmental impact.

The Detroit refinery’s DSA is its first since winning a 2010 and 2008 DSA. This is the first year the El Paso and Kenai refineries have earned the DSA. At last year’s awards, the El Paso refinery received a 2023 Elite Platinum Award, AFPM’s second highest honor, and the Kenai refinery earned a 2023 Elite Silver Award.