Getty Oil Company — Corporate Overview

Premises Description

Getty Oil Company (founded 1928; long headquartered Los Angeles CA; later Tulsa OK) was through the twentieth century one of the great U.S. independent integrated petroleum majors — the Getty family’s flagship exploration, refining, marketing, and pipeline enterprise that absorbed Tidewater Oil Company in 1967 and became one of the largest U.S. independents by the late 1970s. Getty Oil was acquired by Texaco in 1984 in a landmark $10.1 billion transaction that touched off the Pennzoil-Texaco litigation — one of the largest civil verdicts in U.S. corporate history. Getty’s asbestos-era refining, exploration, and marketing operations produce ongoing premises-liability exposure.

Major Getty Oil / Tidewater asbestos-era U.S. refining and operations sites allegedly included:

  • Delaware Refinery (Delaware City DE) — historic Tidewater Associated Oil / Getty Delaware River refinery (later Star Enterprise / Motiva; today PBF Energy)
  • Avon Refinery (Martinez CA) — historic Tidewater Associated Oil California refinery (later Tosco; today Marathon Martinez)
  • El Dorado Refinery (El Dorado KS) — Getty Mid-Continent refinery (later Frontier / HollyFrontier; today HF Sinclair)
  • Tulsa OK operations — Getty / Tidewater Mid-Continent exploration, refining, and corporate operations
  • California exploration and production — Getty Kern County, Ventura County, and Los Angeles Basin oil-field operations
  • Getty pipeline and product-terminal network across the Mid-Atlantic, California, and Mid-Continent

Each operated continuously through the asbestos era with extensive asbestos-containing refinery, terminal, and oil-field infrastructure. Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that pre-1980 Getty / Tidewater refinery, terminal, and oil-field premises allegedly involved asbestos through:

  • Asbestos pipe covering on crude, vacuum, reformer, FCC (fluid catalytic cracker), alkylation, hydrotreater, and product-header process piping
  • Asbestos-fabric expansion joints on FCC regenerator overheads and reformer flue-gas duct
  • Asbestos block and hot-side lagging on crude and vacuum tower shells, reformer heaters, and FCC main columns
  • Asbestos refractory converter linings on sulfuric acid alkylation reactors and settlers
  • Asbestos-packed control valve stems and pump shaft seals across refinery process units
  • Asbestos sheet gaskets at flanges, manways, and reactor heads throughout the refineries
  • Asbestos sprayed fireproofing on structural steel across pre-1973 (EPA ban) pipe racks, process modules, and tank-farm structures
  • Asbestos block and rope insulation on powerhouse and utility-boiler steam headers and turbogenerators
  • Asbestos pipe covering and gaskets on oil-field steam-injection and thermal-recovery piping in Getty’s Kern County heavy-oil operations

Getty Oil Company has been named as a Premises Defendant in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation.

Workers Exposed

Plaintiffs allegedly worked at Getty / Tidewater Delaware City DE, Avon (Martinez) CA, El Dorado KS, Tulsa OK, and other Getty refineries, terminals, and California oil fields in trades including:

  • OCAW / USW refinery operators at Getty / Tidewater refineries
  • Refinery pipefitters (UA Local members) working Getty turnarounds on crude, vacuum, reformer, FCC, and alkylation units
  • Insulators (HFIAW Local members) applying and removing asbestos pipe covering and block on Getty process piping and towers
  • Refinery boilermakers (IBB Local members) at Getty powerhouse boilers, FCC regenerators, and heater tube pulls
  • Oil-field operators and steam-injection crews in Getty’s Kern County heavy-oil thermal-recovery operations
  • Millwrights rebuilding refinery pumps, compressors, and rotating equipment with asbestos packing
  • Electricians and IBEW workers on plant switchgear, motor-control centers, and substation asbestos-fabric arc chutes
  • Construction-trade workforces on Getty EPC and turnaround projects

If You Worked at a Getty Oil / Tidewater Refinery, Terminal, or Oil Field

If you or a family member worked at a Getty Oil Company or Tidewater Oil refinery, product terminal, pipeline pump station, or California heavy-oil field during the asbestos era — as a Getty / Tidewater employee or as a dispatched contractor trade worker — and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer, or another asbestos-related illness, you may have legal rights.

Free, confidential case evaluation: Speak with O’Brien Law Firm — (314) 936-2956

Plants by State

Getty Oil Company (and its Tidewater Oil predecessor) operated refineries, terminals, and oil-field operations across multiple U.S. states. Detailed premises information is available on the following state jobsite pages: