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Chevron’s Pascagoula Refinery...

Chevron’s Pascagoula Refinery marks 60 years of operation

By: Tim Potter - May 3, 2023

Tim Potter, Director of the Chevron Pascagoula Refinery

The Jackson County facility, a significant economic driver in Mississippi, is key to America’s energy security as it continues to pioneer new technologies.

Chevron has a long and storied history in Mississippi with our marketing terminal in Collins, our helicopter maintenance facility in Picayune, and Chevron’s largest and most complex wholly owned refinery in Pascagoula. As our refinery celebrates its 60th year of operation, we recognize how important the facility has been for our state’s economy and our country’s energy security.

2023 marks 60 years of Chevron being a community partner in Pascagoula, providing thousands of careers and supporting our region in education and workforce development. In fact, when combining our refinery payroll, our property taxes and spend on goods and services in Jackson County, our direct impact on the local economy came to more than $900 million in 2022. Our employees spent more than 2400 hours working to better our surrounding community and environment through volunteer efforts. That, combined with our financial support of organizations that do the most good in our community, will continue to be a priority of our company and our people.

Chevron’s Pascagoula Refinery

Pascagoula remains a major supplier of energy to our region, processing 369,000 barrels of crude oil daily. This output makes it possible for 6.9 million gallons of gasoline to be added to the supply every day. As we look forward, Chevron remains committed to balancing economic prosperity, energy security and environmental stewardship, while fostering a global energy transition. 

Pascagoula plays a key role in that commitment. The Pascagoula refinery’s purpose statement – Together, we own our future – captures the spirit and intent of our efforts. We’re taking actions associated with our traditional oil and gas operations to work toward a lower carbon future, together. For example, we recently completed a project at the refinery that is reducing our CO2 emissions by 3,400 tons per year, which is the equivalent of the emissions from the energy use of 389 Mississippi homes. 

We’re also growing lower carbon businesses, like our biofuels business. Chevron is now one of the leading producers of biofuels in the country. We supply markets across the nation with biodiesel, renewable diesel, and renewable natural gas. Our focus is on the technology of tomorrow that can fuel today’s vehicles.

For instance, Chevron recently announced the development of an innovative new gasoline blend with more than 50 percent renewable content. Our company demonstrated the benefits of this new technology by partnering with Toyota on a road trip that began in Pascagoula and toured across our state before making a stop in Louisiana and concluding in Texas.

This tour showcased our ability to produce a renewable gasoline blend that can reduce passenger vehicle lifecycle emissions by more than 40 percent for the millions of Americans who drive gasoline-powered vehicles today. However, we will need inclusive public policy for this fuel to be viable at commercial scale. Policy considerations include market-based mechanisms that promote lowering the carbon intensity of fuels, feedstock flexibility, co-processing of traditional and bio feedstocks, and carbon reduction benefit analysis that takes into account the full lifecycle of transportation alternatives.

While Chevron is dedicated to providing ever-cleaner energy, the safety of our people and our community tops our priorities. We subscribe to two key principles:

  • Do it safely, or not at all.
  • There is always time to do it right.

Everything we do at Chevron is informed by these two simple phrases. They serve as a guide to ensure that our business practices, at their very core, are for the service of people.

We are fortunate to enjoy such a favorable position, not only geographically, but socially, as well. We have shared a great relationship with our surrounding Jackson County communities, including Pascagoula, Moss Point, Gautier, Ocean Springs and our neighbors throughout the Gulf Coast for six decades. We work to maintain strong connections with our business partners, our stakeholders and this great state that has been consistent since 1963 and we know how valuable those connections are. This area is filled with amazing people who are committed to industry and quality of life existing in harmony, and we are likewise committed to this community.

Our company is positioned to maintain its status as a worldwide energy leader, no matter what the future may hold. We’re proud to be a part of the solution, and we’re proud to call Mississippi home.

About the Author(s)
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Tim Potter

Tim Potter became Director of the Chevron Pascagoula Refinery in October 2021. Prior to joining the Pascagoula Refinery, he served as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Star Petroleum Refining Company Limited, a Chevron joint venture refinery in Thailand. Tim earned his bachelor’s degree in Materials Engineering from California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo. He joined Chevron at Chevron Research and Technology Center Materials Laboratory in Richmond and has held a number of positions across the enterprise in the United States, Kazakhstan, and Thailand.