CITGO is proud to be a leading manufacturer of high-quality transportation fuels and petrochemicals. Our Lake Charles complex, strategically located on the banks of the Calcasieu Ship Channel, encompasses 2,000 acres which includes the CITGO Refinery. The facility employs about 1,200 regular, full-time employees.

The CITGO Lake Charles Refinery is a modern, deep-conversion facility with a processing capacity of 425,000 - 440,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The fifth largest refinery in the nation, it’s particularly suited to process heavy crudes into high-octane, unleaded gasoline. It also produces turbine fuel, heating oils and petrochemicals such as benzene, xylenes and propylene, which are used to manufacture a wide range of products that people use every day. CITGO’s relationship with PDVSA assures the Lake Charles Refinery a stable supply of crude oil.

Being a good corporate neighbor means more than running a safe, reliable, environmentally responsible facility it also means giving back to the community. CITGO’s economic impact in Southwest Louisiana is considerable, but our commitment goes well beyond simple economics. Both independently and as members of our well-known employee community service organization, Team CITGO, our employees devote thousands of hours each year to charity and community projects.

• Getting Involved — Our employees devote thousands of hours each year to charity and community projects like Big Brother Big Sisters, Literacy Council, and Families Helping Families. For the past several years, CITGO Lake Charles has also had the most successful United Way campaign in the five parish area. In fact, our combined corporate and employee contributions since 1975 have totaled nearly $10 million.
  As a corporation, CITGO supports the Muscular Dystrophy Association by sponsoring the largest single-day MDA fundraiser held in Louisiana each year, the CITGO/MDA Golf Classic. Since 1985, our employees, contractors, vendors and suppliers have raised more than $2.5 million to help find a cure for these debilitating childhood diseases.

• Safety — Over the past several years, CITGO Lake Charles has developed a reputation as one of the safest facilities in our industry. Employee safety awareness has long been our guiding principle where employees make safety an integral part of every job task. CITGO Lake Charles achieved four National Petroleum and Refiners Association (NPRA) awards for 2009 performance Gold Award, Merit Award, Achievement Hours, and Achievement Years. Additionally, Lake Charles employees achieved four million safe work hours in June, 2010.

• Education — CITGO Lake Charles is very active in supporting education at all levels in Calcasieu Parish. In addition to the benefits seen by our local schools as a result of the considerable tax base we provide, CITGO has participated as a partner in the Calcasieu Parish school system “Partners in Education” program since 1988. We now serve as a partner for four different Calcasieu Parish public schools. CITGO also supports McNeese State University with a regular endowment to the college of Engineering and Sowela Technical College through its process technology degree program.

• Our Environment — Situated near Louisiana’s lush coastal wetlands, we are particularly mindful of our pledge to share the environment responsibly. A $250 million Cat Feed Hydrotreater was brought on-line to reduce air emissions and make gasolines burn cleaner in the vehicles they power. Recently, the $100 million installation of the three 230-foot-tall wet gas scrubbers tied to the fluid catalytic cracking units reduces particulate and sulfur dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. More recently, a $50 Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel conversion project to reduce the emissions from on-road use such as from large trucks and city buses. None of these systems will produce a single gallon of product, but they help us protect our precious environmental resources from contamination.