Flint Hills Resources’ Dillon: Safety, stewardship remains a priority

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With over 20 years of industry experience, Rodney Dillon understands that integrity and respect are important tenants of leadership.

With his recent promotion to VP and manufacturing manager for Flint Hills Resources Corpus Christi Refineries, Dillon said he believes these fundamentals are vital for success on the jobsite.

"These skills set the stage for how you engage with your people and teams to advance your everyday work opportunities," he said. "I’ve always subscribed to the old adage, ‘there’s not one of us smarter than the collective whole of all of us.’ It’s this belief that allows you to benefit from the dispersed knowledge in our workforce, both internal and external."

Dillon, who took the helm in June of this year, supervises a workforce of more than 1,000 full-time employees and contractors and is responsible for heading up all operations, including safety, compliance and overall business results.

"I’m honored to have the opportunity to lead our Corpus Christi operations and work with our extraordinary employees to continuously innovate and transform our operations," Dillon said.

Dillon succeeds Brook Vickery, who was recently named senior VP of operations with Wichita, Kansas-based INVISTA. Both Flint Hills Resources and INVISTA are subsidiaries of Koch Industries.

Dillon said a key goal for the Corpus Christi refineries is to strive to be among the most competitive companies in the industry by being good stewards of its resources.

"We provide products that help make modern life possible and improve people’s lives," he said. "And we do this responsibly by prioritizing safety and environmental progress and contributing meaningfully to our communities."

Dillon has been with Flint Hills Resources since 2005. He previously served in a wide range of leadership roles, including managing several reliability centers, construction services, field services and operations production. Dillon is a longtime member of AFPM, while other company representatives are also members of Texas Chemical Council, Texas Oil & Gas Association and Texas Association of Manufacturers.

A Texas native, Dillon earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He previously worked for Albermarle Corporation in Pasadena, Texas, Trigeant Ltd in Corpus Christi, Texas, and Citgo in Corpus Christi.

"Rodney’s decades of experience and deep industry knowledge will serve him well as the new leader of our Corpus Christi refineries," said Phil Gaarder, executive VP of operations with Flint Hills Resources. "I’m confident that under Rodney’s leadership of our Corpus Christi refineries we will continue to operate safely and with respect for the environment and our communities."

Flint Hills Resources acquired the West refinery from Sun Oil Company in 1981, which included a 60,000 b/d crude processing unit, a petrochemical plant, 490 acres of undeveloped land adjacent to the refinery and a crude oil pipeline gathering system in South Texas. The East plant was purchased from Ker McGee in 1995.

Since then, Dillon said, a major investment was made at the West plant to process domestic crude from Texas — primarily from the Eagle Ford Basin. The company’s focus is on meeting the tremendous demand for transportation fuels.

Flint Hills Resources’ operations are primarily located in the Midwest and Texas, but it also operates the Pine Bend refinery in Rosemount, Minnesota. The company’s three refineries have a combined crude oil processing capacity of more than 700,000 b/d.

The company produces, markets and transports refined products including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, asphalt and heating oil. Flint Hills Resources also owns and operates more than 4,000 miles of pipelines that transport crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas liquids and chemicals, delivered through a distribution system of more than 40 terminals throughout the Midwest and Texas.

Flint Hills Resources Corpus Christi Refineries are OSHA Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) certified, Dillon said.

"Our voluntary participation in this program means that we have implemented effective safety and health management systems to maintain injury and illness rates below the industry average," he said. "Certification involves peer review from OSHA and industry partners and employee-led programs that continuously improve our safety practices."

In 2020, Flint Hills Resources launched a first-of-its-kind digital approach to leak detection at all its industrial facilities. Partnering with Molex, an industrial electronics manufacturer, the monitoring system worked to streamline the Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) process through a network of sensors combined with data analytics for early identification of potential leaks.

"The Molex technology is transformational," Dillon said. "This sensor-based approach to LDAR monitoring allows us to safely detect, in almost real time, when and where we may be experiencing operational issues so they can be fixed quickly and efficiently."

Molex’s technology is powered by Air- Compliance Solution from mPACT2WO, a Molex business. The solution involves a combination of next-gen sensors, an optimally placed sensor network and an intelligent software to help pinpoint potential leaks around the clock.

The monitoring system’s data enables the identification of emission sources quickly, improving regulatory compliance by reducing emissions at a typical refinery or chemical facility by as much as 70 mt/yr.

"We work cooperatively to share best industry practices and explore innovation projects that help our industry be good stewards of our resources," Dillon said. "Early uses of this technology have already produced favorable results, as it helped us identify and promptly fix a source of emissions at our loading operations that otherwise may have gone undetected for a longer period of time," Dillon added.

The novel LDAR system enhances detection of abnormal conditions that could lead to occupational or process safety events, creating a safer work environment and improving data quality. According to Dillon, innovative developments like this one that can enhance safety are important as the well-being of employees and communities is always a top priority.

"We make this happen every day by building capability in our people and resilience in our systems to adapt, prevent, contain and recover, so when the unexpected happens, people remain safe," he said. "We believe that our EHS performance is something that we must focus on every second of every day — it is not a ‘place’ you get to, it is a ‘journey’ that never ends."

For more information, visit fhr.com.

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