Registration
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Welcome
Welcome
Chet Thompson, President and CEO, AFPM
Lifetime Service Award
Phil Gaarder, EVP Operations, Flint Hills Resources, LLC
Jim Stump, Braya Renewable Fuels
Chet Thompson, President and CEO, AFPM
Lifetime Service Award
Phil Gaarder, EVP Operations, Flint Hills Resources, LLC
Jim Stump, Braya Renewable Fuels
Speakers
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Workforce Keynote
Speakers
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Promoting Consumer Fuel and Vehicle Choice
Speakers:
John Eichberger, Transportation Energy Institute
Geoff Moody, AFPM
Perspectives on the market development, challenges, and opportunities to better address emissions.
John Eichberger, Transportation Energy Institute
Geoff Moody, AFPM
Perspectives on the market development, challenges, and opportunities to better address emissions.
Speakers
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Break in the HUB
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Digital Transformation: Conditioning Your Workforce for Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a transformative technology that is presently influencing, or will eventually influence, nearly every facet of our personal and professional lives. Although much of the information highlights the benefits of AI, it also raises concerns about potential negative impacts and unintended consequences. It's crucial to prepare the workforce for AI to reduce disruptions. Leaders will share their experiences with AI deployments, the methods used to ensure success, and lessons learned for future AI initiatives.
Take Aways:
- Awareness of potential impacts of AI on personnel and culture
- Methods and techniques employed to achieve and sustain positive acceptance of AI
- Insights into how AI is impacting jobs and job roles and defining new valued skill sets
Moderator:
Brent Railey, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP
Speakers:
Holly Fitch, Marathon Petroleum Corporation
Tyler Harnos, Big West Oil, LLC
Siva Lakshmanan, DeepHow
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Topic
CSB Lessons Learned: Fired Heater Tubing Failure
Fired Heater, Lessons Learned
The CSB will discuss its investigation of the November 19, 2023, fired heater tube rupture at a refinery in Martinez, California. The incident occurred during the initial startup of a renewable diesel hydroprocessing unit, resulting in a fire that seriously injured one employee. Topics will include fired heater safe operating limits, worker proximity to fired heaters, safety instrumented systems that detect low process flow into fired heaters, burner operation, valve misalignments, and corporate oversight.
Participants will: Gain an understanding of both the process-side and combustion-side causes that contributed to the tube rupture; Identify potential deficiencies that may exist at their own units; and Review the CSB’s industry recommendation to API for suggested revisions to API RP 556 (Instrumentation, Control, and Protective Systems for Gas Fired Heaters).
Moderator:
Willis Jernigan, AFPM
Speaker:
Melike Yersiz, U.S. Chemical Safety Board
Speakers
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Topic
Main Column Bottoms Operation and Optimization
101 Series, FCC
This session will review a collaboration between UOP and Marathon to optimize operation of the FCC bottoms section. After detecting fouling in the main column slurry pumparound packing, an innovative internals modification was implemented to minimize this in the future. This presentation will review the observed benefits of the new internals and provide an overview of key variables to monitor in the bottoms circuit.
Moderator:
Michael Allegro, BASF Corporation
Speakers:
Ryan Brown, Marathon Petroleum Corporation
Nick Turner, Honeywell UOP
Speakers
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Topic
When the Standards Stop: Using FEA to Push Fitness for Service Further
Reliability and Maintenance Bootcamp, Mechanical Integrity
This technical session is designed to give engineers and maintenance professionals a practical understanding of how API-579 Level 3 Fitness-for-Service (FFS) assessments—powered by Finite Element Analysis (FEA)—can solve complex reliability challenges in the oil and gas industry.
We will introduce advanced methods for evaluating equipment with damage mechanisms like corrosion, cracking, and dents. You’ll learn when Level 3 assessments are needed, how FEA is applied, and why these techniques offer better accuracy, safer outcomes, and longer equipment life.
Highlights include:
- API-579 FFS framework and when to escalate to Level 3
- Benefits of FEA: realistic modeling of stress, temperature, and pressure
- Real-world case studies: pressure vessel corrosion, weld cracking, and pipe dents
- Key takeaways for maintenance planning and repair decisions
Tailored for a broad operator-based audience, this session uses real examples—not just theory—to demonstrate how advanced analysis can enhance reliability, reduce costs, and support critical decisions.
Moderator:
Dean Roberts, Ergon, Inc.
Speaker:
Colin Davis, Becht
Speakers
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Topic