2026 Valero Report on Guiding Principles - Report - Page 22
Managing Physical Risks
With re昀椀neries along coastlines and ethanol plants in the U.S. Midwest, Valero has long evaluated and prepared
for physical risks to its facilities from natural disasters and weather events, including hurricanes, tornadoes,
昀氀oods and other threats. Our emergency preparedness and response programs are focused on the mitigation
of these risks.
Enhancing Physical Resilience
In the past 10 years, Valero has invested more than $14.5 billion of capital to sustain its operations, including
turnarounds, catalysts, investments in safety, preventive equipment maintenance, environmental mitigation,
and reliability and regulatory compliance. Sustaining capital is used to keep our facilities performing and to
mitigate and reduce physical risks to our operations and our people, including:
• Infrastructure at raised elevations to reduce the effects of 昀氀ooding
• Upgraded critical buildings, including control rooms and employee shelters resilient to physical risks
• Re昀椀neries designed to withstand hurricane forces, with safe shutdowns and nonessential personnel
evacuations initiated in advance of major hurricanes
Emergency Management Planning
Hurricane Preparedness
Our emergency management planning
includes:
Valero’s U.S. Gulf Coast facilities are periodically exposed
to hurricanes and other severe weather events, including
strong winds, storm surges and 昀氀ooding. While our re昀椀neries
are engineered to withstand these weather impacts, our
management and re昀椀nery leadership teams use a sophisticated
hurricane-speci昀椀c preparedness program to protect our people
and assets. This includes pre-hurricane season activities, as well
as a 昀椀ve-phase process to monitor evolving conditions as the
storm approaches, allowing for adequate time and resources for
our employees and facilities to safely prepare.
• Emergency response plans at each
facility that comply with all local,
state and federal regulations and are
regularly updated with third-party
assessments to ensure excellence
• Ensuring emergency response
equipment and infrastructure are
maintained in fully functional condition
and are readily available along with
trained personnel when needed for
emergency response
• Maintaining quali昀椀ed emergency
response teams with strong
relationships with third-party response
personnel
• Conducting regular drills and
assessments to promote response
readiness and alignment with our Goal
Zero program
• Allocating capital resources to
emergency preparedness and response
capabilities through the strategic
planning and capital budget processes
to make our facilities ef昀椀cient and
resilient
• Employing the use of emerging
technologies to optimize decisionmaking and response execution
• Capturing lessons learned from drills
and real-world incidents to continually
improve emergency response plans,
training, and procedures
22
Phase
1
Phase
2
Phase
3
Phase
4
Phase
5
At the start of hurricane season with facility plans
reviewed and updated, verify supplies and begin
daily monitoring.
Assess predicted storm path and potential for
impact.
Determine site(s) that are likely to be signi昀椀cantly
impacted, and activate the Corporate Emergency
Operations Center, operating plan and
contingencies, call center, and equipment and
service providers.
Execute shutdown, ride-out and/or evacuation
plans.
Initiate post-hurricane response, including
the assessment of impacts on employees, the
environment, surrounding communities and plant
operations, and implementation of plans for
recovery, support and safe startup of operations.
