MOSCOW (MRC) -- A 37-year-old contract worker from Brownsville, Texas, died early Wednesday morning near a unit under maintenance at ExxonMobil's Beaumont refinery, according to a report by the Beaumont Enterprise newspaper, reported Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The worker was struck in the head and neck area by piping that was being removed from a heat exchanger, a local sheriff's office spokesperson said, according to the report.
The man was pronounced dead shortly before 1 a.m. local time. His name has yet to be released.
Three people witnessed the accident, and a fire department dispatcher said emergency crews were called at 12:28 a.m., according to the Beaumont Enterprise.
The employee reportedly worked for AltairStrickland, an industrial engineering group based in Deer Park. AltairStrickland specializes in process unit turnarounds.
ExxonMobil's Beaumont refinery processes 365,000 bpd of crude, according to its website. The company also operates chemicals, polyethylene (PE) and lube plants in Beaumont, employing 2,000 workers and more than 1,000 contractors.
As MRC informed previously, ExxonMobil is studying a proposal to expand its 334,600-bpd refinery in Beaumont, Texas, into the largest in the US. ExxonMobil has pulled together a group of experts at the plant to do more detailed studies on potentially adding a third crude distillation unit (CDU). The new CDU could make the Beaumont refinery the largest in the US, with capacity rising to as much as 850,000 bpd.
ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC