Hess Corporation

Headquartered in New York City, Hess Corporation is a Fortune 100 company engaged in offshore and deepwater exploration and drilling. The company has faced accidents, including several controversial environmental disasters and workers injured on offshore oil platforms and rigs. These workers are protected by maritime law and have a right to seek compensation for injuries.

About Hess Corporation

Hess is headquartered in New York City and was ranked 75 on the Fortune 500 list in 2013. Hess focuses on gas and oil exploration and development.

The company downsized in 2014 to focus more on this aspect of the business, selling its gas stations to Marathon Petroleum. In addition to oil and gas exploration, Hess is involved in energy trading with a branch called the Hess Energy Trading Company.

Hess Corporation History

Today’s Hess Corporation was founded in 1933 by Leon Hess, who was just 19 years old and had purchased a second-hand oil delivery truck.

• By 1937, he had expanded to a fleet of six trucks and delivered oil to customers along the East Coast.
• He purchased his first terminal to receive oil shipments in 1938 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
• In 1948, Hess purchased its first ship, a large oil tanker.
• In 1957, the company had its first refinery in Port Reading, New Jersey.
• Merging with a chemical company in 1962, Hess became Hess Oil and Chemical Company.
• In 1969, the name was changed to Amerada Hess when the company merged with another oil company.
• Offshore exploration and development began in earnest in the 1970s with positions in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.
• Leon Hess didn’t retire from the company’s leadership until 1995, spending six decades guiding its growth.
• In recent years, Hess has continued to expand offshore operations and ultimately reverted to its original name, Hess Corporation.

In late 2024, Chevron was set to buy Hess in a $53 billion deal. The Federal Trade Commission approved the deal in September after ExxonMobil challenged the merger.

Hess Operations

Hess operates both inland and offshore in the search for oil and gas. Major inland operations include the North Dakota Bakken field and the Ohio Utica shale.

Offshore, the company has many more locations and can claim to be the sixth-largest oil producer in the Gulf of Mexico. Other offshore operations include:

• Danish waters in the North Sea
• The Malay Basin off the coast of Malaysia and Thailand
• The Carnarvon Basin in Australian waters
• A block off the coast of Guyana
• Locations offshore from Ghana and Equatorial Guinea in West Africa

Hess Corporation Safety Policies

Hess claims to prioritize safety for all its work, both inland and offshore. The company’s goal, to which it holds all employees accountable, is zero incidents.

The company offers annual safety excellence awards to promote safety in the workplace. Safety management plans for the company include:

• Integrity in design and reducing risks through facility design and construction
• Technical integrity
• Regular testing and maintaining of hardware and software
• Operational integrity

Hess also works with contractors to ensure safety. The company’s contractor engagement process includes onboarding directly with contractors and leaders and on-site checks of all equipment and operations procedures.

The company also develops innovative techniques and equipment to make the workplace safer.

Environmental Accidents

While Hess maintains it has a good record for safety and a commitment to protecting workers, it doesn’t have the best track record for environmental incidents:

• In 1990, a barge carrying 31,000 kerosene barrels ran into a Hudson River reef, spilling thousands of gallons of fuel into the water.
• The company was also fined for violating environmental laws in the operations of its gas stations in New York and was forced to pay over $1 million in fines.
• It has also been part of an extensive settlement over the contamination of drinking water with a fuel additive.

Worker Safety and Maritime Law

Hess has a reasonably good record regarding safety and worker incidents, but it isn’t perfect. The company has experienced several incidents that were close calls and could have injured or even killed workers.

One such incident included a train derailment that caused a massive fire and the evacuation of an entire town in North Dakota. Luckily, no one was hurt in the incident, but it could have been much worse.

Another incident occurred offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. A worker’s mistake led to the leak of zinc bromide into the water, an environmental accident, and an incident that could have harmed workers in the area.

Investigations concluded that the procedure the workers were following did not include appropriate steps to avoid the spill.

These incidents show how dangerous oil and gas work can be and that blame can be assigned to various parties involved. Offshore work is particularly risky, and workers on platforms are always in danger of being victims of accidents. These accidents can lead to long-term health problems, medical bills, and lost wages.

For these reasons, workers in the offshore industry are protected by maritime law, which gives them the right to sue employers for adequate compensation.

If you have been hurt in a maritime workplace accident, you can seek compensation for your injuries. Your family can seek the same compensation if the worst happens and you are killed on the job.

It is essential to speak to a maritime lawyer as soon after an accident as possible so that you know what steps to take next.