A refinery fire is one of the largest losses there is, and the carrier will fight the business interruption and the pollution exclusion hardest of all.
Process units, multi-month business interruption, environmental contamination, and the exclusions carriers reach for each settle on different rules. The carrier's opening number rarely reflects the full loss. We document and negotiate all of it for the policyholder.
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A refinery or petrochemical loss is among the most severe and complex commercial claims that exist. The real exposure is the extended interruption, the specialized process equipment, and the contamination, not the visible burn.
The unit repair is one number. The months of lost throughput and the contamination fight dwarf it.
A refinery or petrochemical loss is among the most severe and complex commercial claims that exist. Continuous processing, pressure vessels, and flammable feedstock mean a fire or explosion can take a unit, or the facility, offline for months, and the business-interruption loss from that lost throughput typically dwarfs the physical damage. Layered on top is environmental contamination and a coverage environment where carriers fight both the BI calculation and the pollution exclusion with their full resources. The real exposure is the extended interruption, the specialized process equipment, and the contamination, not the visible burn.
These claims are won or lost on the business-interruption analysis and the coverage fight, not the cleanup, and the dollars are enormous. Machinery-breakdown, downstream-energy, and pollution coverages interact in complex ways, and carriers bring forensic accountants and engineers to minimize the claim. A refinery claim handled without equivalent rigor leaves staggering sums unrecovered.
Business interruption
Lost throughput while a unit or the facility is down, often for months. For a continuous-process facility this is typically the single largest component, frequently exceeding the physical damage by a wide margin.
Process equipment and pressure vessels
Reactors, columns, exchangers, and pressure vessels are custom-fabricated with long lead times. Machinery-breakdown coverage and valuation are central, and replacement time drives the interruption.
Environmental contamination
A release or fire can cause significant contamination requiring regulated cleanup. The cost is substantial and the coverage is contested via pollution exclusions.
Exclusions and complex coverage
Pollution exclusions, machinery-breakdown interplay, and reservation-of-rights positions are the carrier's tools on these losses. Their applicability is contestable and has to be confronted with documentation.
The contamination spreads, the corrosion lingers, and the lost throughput compounds every day you're down.
A refinery fire does damage on three fronts at once. The fire and explosion damage specialized process equipment; the smoke carries corrosive and reactive compounds that settle on equipment and controls well beyond the burn, where the damage is latent; and a release can leave regulated environmental contamination. Meanwhile, every day a unit is offline compounds the lost-throughput loss, which on a continuous-process facility is the dominant number.
This is what makes refinery claims distinct: the largest loss is usually the extended business interruption, the contamination and corrosion are widespread and partly latent, and the carrier deploys forensic accountants and engineers plus pollution exclusions to compress all of it. If the loss isn't documented with equivalent rigor and the coverage isn't pressed, the carrier resolves the claim on its own terms and the operator absorbs a catastrophic gap.
What we do about it
We document the full loss, process equipment, corrosion beyond the burn, and contamination, and we bring in industrial hygienists and environmental and engineering expertise to establish the true footprint and the regulated cleanup required. On the largest component, business interruption, we build the lost-throughput claim from real production and financial data and model it multiple ways, matching the rigor the carrier's experts bring to minimizing it, and we require the carrier to defend any pollution exclusion on the facts.
The frame here is simple and it holds all the way through this claim: we document what actually happened. It just consistently turns out to be a great deal larger than what the insurance company's first scope assumed, because their method is built to see the obvious damage, not the full loss.
On a continuous-process facility, the lost-throughput number is the claim. The carrier knows it, and fights it hardest.
For a refinery or petrochemical operator, the income lost while a unit or the facility is offline can run for months and typically dwarfs the physical damage. Business interruption is meant to pay the profit you would have earned plus continuing expenses across the genuine, extended restoration period a process facility requires, not the optimistic timeline the carrier prefers.
This is where carriers push hardest, because there is no single correct business-interruption number - there's a range of defensible ways to calculate it, and the insurer naturally reaches for the method that pays least. They'll build one model on an optimistic restoration timeline and a baseline that happens to understate your normal operations.
How we push back
We don't hand the carrier one calculation and hope. We model the loss several independent ways - against your real throughput and margins, against the lead times for custom process equipment, against the extended ramp a process facility needs to return to full output, mapped to how your facility actually operates - and then use those models against each other to find and substantiate the presentation that most accurately captures the full impact. The carrier's single optimistic model is rarely the honest one.
A concrete piece of that: the look-back period. The carrier may favor a multi-year average because a soft year buried in it conveniently drags your baseline down. If a bad year isn't representative of normal operations, a long look-back understates the real loss and a shorter window reflects the truth. Which baseline you use can move the number substantially, and it's exactly the kind of thing a policyholder would never know to contest. We do.
None of this is inflation. It's rigor. We build the most accurate picture of what the interruption actually cost you - and on these losses, the accurate picture is consistently and significantly larger than the carrier's first model, because their method is built to compress the timeline and shave the baseline.
The shortfalls in these claims are predictable. So is how we fight them.
Large losses in this sector are contested on a handful of recurring fronts. None of these mean the carrier is acting in bad faith, it means the policy is complex and the default reading of it favors the insurer unless someone pushes back with documentation. Here's what they try, and what we do about each.
The single largest lever: the shorter the assumed timeline, the less BI the carrier owes, and a process facility's true ramp is long and slow.
Our move: we reconstruct the genuine extended period of restoration from equipment lead times, permitting, and the slow ramp to full throughput, and model the loss multiple ways to substantiate it.
Carriers invoke pollution exclusions to resist the regulated cleanup, which on these losses can be substantial.
Our move: we treat fire-driven contamination as fire damage where the facts support it, document it, and require the carrier to defend the exclusion's application rather than conceding it.
Custom process equipment and pressure vessels are undervalued, and machinery-breakdown coverage interplay is used against the insured.
Our move: we document replacement-cost entitlement, the true cost and lead time of custom equipment, and the correct interplay of property and machinery-breakdown coverage.
Carriers scope to the visible burn and resist paying for corrosion damage to equipment and controls elsewhere.
Our move: we use documented hygienist and engineering findings to establish the true corrosion and contamination footprint beyond the burn.
The carrier's forensic accountants build the lost-income model to minimize the claim.
Our move: we build and defend our own throughput-and-margin model from your records, matching the carrier's rigor rather than accepting its figure.
The insurance company's adjuster works for the insurance company.
After a major loss, the carrier sends its own adjuster, and often a forensic accountant and engineering consultants, all retained by the insurer. They are competent and they are not neutral; their job is to resolve the claim on terms favorable to the company that pays them. A public adjuster is the licensed counterweight: we represent the policyholder only, we build and present the claim, and we negotiate the settlement.
On a refinery or petrochemical loss the asymmetry is the whole problem. The carrier brings specialists. If the policyholder brings a contractor's estimate and hope, the outcome is decided before the negotiation starts. We level the table, document the full loss with the same rigor the carrier's experts bring to minimizing it, and we're compensated as a percentage of what we recover, so our incentive is your number, not theirs.
What happens after you call.
Loss review and policy analysis
We read the actual policy and endorsements - limits, BI and extended-period provisions, machinery-breakdown, pollution terms, exclusions and any reservation of rights - and assess the full scope before anyone commits to a number.
Document everything, including corrosion and contamination
Process equipment, corrosion beyond the burn, and regulated contamination. We bring in industrial hygienists and environmental and engineering expertise to establish the true footprint and cleanup required, while the evidence still exists.
Build the business-interruption claim - modeled several ways
From real throughput and financial data: margins, custom-equipment lead times, the extended period of restoration, and the right look-back baseline, modeled independently and used against each other to substantiate the full loss.
Present, negotiate, and settle
We present the documented claim, contest the predictable shortfalls - the restoration period and the pollution exclusion first - and negotiate the settlement on your behalf through to resolution.
Questions refinery and petrochemical operators ask.
Why would the business-interruption claim be larger than the physical damage?
Because on a continuous-process facility, lost throughput compounds every day you're down, and a fire or explosion can take a unit or the facility offline for months. The profit on that lost production, plus the continuing fixed costs, typically dwarfs the cost to repair the equipment. That's why the restoration period, how long the facility is genuinely down, is the single most important and most contested number in the claim.
The carrier cited a pollution exclusion. Can they deny the cleanup?
They'll try, and the regulated cleanup on a petrochemical loss can be substantial. But property policies define pollutants broadly and carriers invoke the exclusion as a matter of course, while whether it actually applies to fire-driven contamination is fact-specific and contestable. It has to be confronted with documentation, treating fire-driven contamination as fire damage where the facts support it, rather than conceded.
The carrier's forensic accountant says our losses are smaller than we claim. What do we do?
Build a better-documented model. The carrier's accountants and engineers are retained to minimize the claim, and their throughput, margin, and restoration-period assumptions are not the only valid ones. We build and defend our own model from your real production and financial records, modeled several ways, matching their rigor. On a loss this size, that difference is measured in very large numbers.
How are the process units and pressure vessels valued?
They're custom-fabricated with long lead times, and the gap between replacement cost and depreciated value is enormous, so valuation is a central fight, along with the interplay between property and machinery-breakdown coverage. We document replacement-cost entitlement and the true cost and lead time of custom equipment so it isn't undervalued and the lead time is reflected in the restoration period.
What does it cost to hire a public adjuster?
We work on a percentage of the recovery, with no upfront cost. We're only paid if and when you recover, which aligns our incentive with maximizing your settlement. Fee specifics are discussed up front before you commit to anything.
Tell us what happened. We'll tell you straight whether you have a fight worth having.
No cost, no obligation. The fastest path is the phone - for a major loss, call and talk to a person today.
713-369-4300Start a claim review
Tell us what happened. A licensed Texas public adjuster will review the loss with you, and tell you straight whether you have a fight worth having. The review is free.
A major loss is decided in the first moves. Make yours count.
Talk to a public adjuster who works only for you. No upfront cost - we're paid a percentage only if you recover.
713-369-4300Crossroads Insurance Recovery Advocates · TDI License 1924788
Don't take our word for it
- Canopius: downstream energy insurance for refining, processing, and petrochemical operations - cover for physical damage and business interruption from fires, explosions, and equipment failures
- Aligned Insurance: oil refinery coverage overview, including machinery-breakdown for specialized equipment and pressure vessels, and fire, explosion, and contamination exposures
- U.S. SEC filing (LSB Industries / El Dorado): a process-plant explosion where the carrier issued a reservation-of-rights letter citing exclusions for potential denial of property-damage and business-interruption claims
- Pillsbury Insurance Recovery & Advisory: documented petrochemical property damage and business-interruption recoveries, including multi-month shutdowns
- IRMI: the property-policy definition of pollutants and the pollution exclusion, and the contestable ground on fire-driven contamination