Tosco Marketing Company Quality Control
TOSCO MARKETING COMPANY
Quality control comes in many forms. For some it is following a specific philosophy, such as those developed by Demming or Juran. For others it is achieving a specific degree of merit as that established by the Malcolm Baldridge Awards, or International Standard Organizations (ISO). However, the petroleum industry as a whole has compromised, shifted, and remained adaptable to an ever-changing world filled with government regulations and restrictions.
The negative environmental impact of the petroleum industry is either not understood, grossly downplayed, or it is blatantly ignored. Government agencies have amended and abolished amendments in many of their policies so quickly that establishing best practices is nearly impossible.
However, one thing in the petroleum industry remains the same. Safety is a key quality concept that must be adhered to. Tosco Corporation made a bad name for itself by ignoring certain safety issues. Quality control in the safety department was ineffective, and people died because of their neglect. Only recently have they outsourced the development of their safety program to Dupont.
Introduction to Government Standards
The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) require an insurmountable amount of data, reports, testing, and auditing to ensure the compliance of all U.S. Oil Companies around the world. The most recent concern regarding the petroleum industry is that of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE’s) that are put in our fuel.
Early on it was believed that adding MTBE’s to fuel would result in cleaner burning gasoline. However, according to the “Ground Water Monitor” small amounts seeped into the ground water and caused an unacceptable amount of contamination.
The conception of MTBE’s was in 1967 with the passage of the Clean Air Act. This is the primary statute governing air quality in the United States. It assigns responsibilities to government and industry to reduce emissions from pollution sources such as automobiles, refineries, chemical plants, and power plants. However, it seems as though every solution to meet the stringent requirements poses another problem. The Clean Air Act has been amended several times, and most recently it is to be amended to ban MTBE’s by the year 2002.
MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, is an oxygenate commonly used in gasoline in America, Europe, and other countries throughout the world. It is a compound created by the chemical reaction of methanol and isobutylene that is added to gasoline because of its high octane level, allowing gasoline to reach the required octane levels and still include a gasoline component. In addition, because it is an oxygenate, MTBE helps gasoline more fully combust, which increases performance and reduces the amount of harmful pollutants such as CO, VOCs, NOx, and particulates released into the atmosphere from automobile exhaust [EFOA]. However, opposition has recently arisen against the use of MTBE in gasoline.
The oil and gas industry has been met with increasing opposition over the years, with fracking and water pollution being some of the most controversial subjects alongside others like pollution, global warming, and claims of corruption. While some anti-frack claims seem like viable arguments, many are the product of misconceptions, an uninformed public. One of the greatest examples of this is Josh Fox’s 2010 documentary GasLand, whose most memorable scene showed a man in Fort Lupton, Colorado, lighting his faucet on fire, blaming it on hydraulic fracturing. After the film was released, among numerous errors it contained, it was found that the water well contained naturally occurring biogenic gas unrelated to oil and gas activity (Energy In Depth).
...et without adequate safe guards does not responsibly meet the needs of consumers’” (1). This irresponsible behavior on behalf of the government further proves that they are acting unethically when they change the gasoline blend used by the public without properly informing them.
...Waxmann et al. (2011) 750 different chemicals were used by various oil and gas companies during hydraulic fracturing over a four year period, where a minimum of 29 were identified to contain carcinogens which are listed as hazardous on both the clean air and safe drinking water act. The USEPA (2011) suggested that chemicals used during fracking should be monitored according to specific criteria.
EPA. (2009, December 29). Retrieved January 15, 2011, from Toxicity and Exposure Assessment for Children's Health: http://www.epa.gov/teach/
Besides the accidental spillage affecting severe damage to the environment and then causing harm to humans, there are direct impacts on human health from oil. Problems suc...
*evidential support: Of the 692 unique ingredients used in fracking, oil and gas companies refuse to disclose an extra ten percent of the chemicals used. News, Neela Banerjee InsideClimate, Marianne Lavelle, David Hasemyer, Sabrina Shankman, Georgina Gustin, Neela Banerjee, Zahra Hirji, and Nicholas Kusnetz. "Fracking Companies Keep 10% of Chemicals Secret, EPA Says." Inside Climate News. N.p., 31 Mar. 2015. Web. 27 Mar. 2017.
In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement was replaced by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Bureau of Safety Environmental Enforcement. This new organization along with OSHA changed the way the offshore drilling is conducted. Today there are several regulations in place that were not in place at the time of the oil spill. Before the
Because it is the most highly publicized of the different forms of ocean pollution, oil spills, oil leakages, and general oil contamination are something that we all seem to be aware of. Since the Exxon Valdez incident, the American public in particular has been more and more critical of oil companies.Each year, over 700 million gallons of oil end up in the ocean. Contrary to what you may have thought, most oil pollution doesn't come from tanker accidents. In fact, tanker accidents account for less than 90 million of the g...
Gasoline is a complex mixture of relatively volatile hydrocarbons that vary widely in chemical & physical properties and are derived from fractional distillation of crude petroleum with a further treatment mainly in terms of improvement of its octane rating. The hundreds of individual hydrocarbons in gasoline range from c4 to c11
Ever since 1908, when Henry Ford manufactured a car that was affordable to most families, the need for oil has been growing more and more every year as humans want more and more products that use oil or are made from it. People and their need for oil far exceeds the need to fill up their car. It stretches out to vast amount of products that people use every day. Including plastics bags when they go shopping, the shampoo they use to clean their hair, the toys their kids play with and the insulation used to keep their houses warm. However with all the positives of oil they’re a lot of negatives that are a result of using oil. One immediate negative oil causes is pollution, oil has two predominant types of pollution. But before we can talk about the different types of pollution. We first need to understand what pollution is. According to Jack Dini and two chapters from his book, Challenging the Environmental Mythology: Wrestling Zeus. Dini says his definition of pollution is “To pollute is to make physically impure or unclean: to contaminate especially with man-made waste” (Dini-2). He later mentions that pollution has two different parameters. The first one being dirtiness and the second being danger. Dini writes “while safety is often talked about as an absolute requirement, modern science can detect such infinitesimally small dangers that the decision about how much health threatening pollution to allow becomes a matter of preference or efficiency, not and absolute.” (Dini-2). By writing this Dini recognizes that there is technology that can tell people when there is to much pollution, however once they know how much pollution there is, it is up to the people to decide when enough is enough and make a change. One being air pollut...
" Oil is the life blood of our modern industrial society. It fuels the machines and lubricates the wheels of the world’s production. But when that vital resource is out of control, it can destroy marine life and devastate the environment and economy of an entire region…. The plain facts are that the technology of oil-- its extraction, its transport, its refinery and use-- has outpaced laws to control that technology and prevent oil from polluting the environment…" (Max, 1969). Oil in its many forms has become one of the necessities of modern industrial life. Under control, and serving its intended purpose, oil is efficient, versatile, and productive. On the other hand, when oil becomes out of control, it can be one of the most devastating substances in the environment. When spilled in water, it spreads for miles around leaving a black memory behind (Stanley, 1969).
Exposure to toxic chemicals ,even at low levels, can cause tremendous harm to humans. In Colorado, for example, an evaluation of birth defects in areas with high concentrations of oil and gas activities found that mothers who lived near many oil/gas wells were 30% more likely to have babies with heart defects. Also, people living near natural-gas wells were more than twice as likely to report upper-respiratory and skin problems than people who lived further away. Not only does fracking impact our health, but it also affects the health of other animals. There have been numerous reports of peoples’ animals drinking their well water then more than half of those animals having a stillborn birth. “The perspective of the gas industry fails to show adequate concern for the long-term health and quality of life of people,” says Dr. Sheila Bushkin MD, MPH of the Institute for Health and the Environment at University at Albany, “When you listen to the personal experiences of actual residents of Pennsylvania and other states where fracking has gone forward, you will hear stories of dead cows, pets, sick children, poisoned water and other serious health and environmental problems. These stories confirm our need for much greater research and evidence-based scientific
As cited by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of US, Pb and Pb containing compounds is one of the top 17 chemicals causing greatest threat to human life and environment.1st July 2006 has been official...
It is known as ISO 9000 family and the ISO 9001 is the one which is concerned about the requirement of the QMS. Of course, that creates the needs for understanding these standards in order to get the certificate from the organization which is authorized by the ISO. That also creates the need for the training which is very important for companies to implement the QMS. The standards have been developed the course of the quality history from needing a quality control to a quality assurance. Basically, implementing a Quality Management System is important for companies to succeed in today’s market, and will enhance customer satisfaction, and improve internal process. It becomes more and more a necessity for international companies because it saves a lot of money in one hand and time in the other. Nevertheless, implementing such system requires an effort, training, and using consultant companies to ease the establishment of the system and to get the certificate eventually.