Phillips 66 hosted their annual Observations Keep Involved Employees Safe (OKIES) celebration event on Wednesday, May 4. This event began in 1995 in the Ponca City Refinery and was originally dubbed: Behavior Emphasis Safety Training (BEST). By the end of its first year, 51 observers were trained and a total of 620 observations were conducted.

In 1999, BEST was overhauled into OKIES in an effort to provide a sense of ownership to participants. There was also an increase in both the quantity and quality of observations.

The heart of OKIES is the Critical Behavior Inventory (CBI) list that is used to identify behaviors and collect data. The OKIES Steering Committee has maintained the CBI list based on incidents and near misses that have occurred in the Ponca City Refinery.

Two tools developed by OKIES to hep create safer habits and to remove at-risk situations include the “Valves You Hate to Operate” and the “Hidden Hazard”. These tools allow employees to communicate at-risk situations through OKIES.

OKIES celebrated its 25th anniversary in the Ponca City Refinery in 2020. Over the course of the first 25 years, 533 observers have been trained and the observations have risen since.

The event had lunch served for everyone at the refinery in the Atrium and the OKIES Fair was held in the site’s gym with various panels from businesses and entities from around Ponca City.

This year’s celebration also saw several guests from the Houston Executive Leadership team including Mark Lashier, President and Chief Operating Officer (effective July 1 and replacing the retiring Greg Garland); Bob Herman, EVP, Refining; Vanessa Sutherland, EVP, Legal & Government Affairs, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary; Kevin Mitchell, EVP, Finance and Chief Financial Officer; and Jeff Dietert, VP, Investor Relations.