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ExxonMobil Investing $2 Billion in Baytown Expansion

Published May 06, 2019 by A.J. Mistretta

ExxonMobil Corp. will invest $2 billion in a three-year expansion project at its Baytown, Texas, chemical complex, the company said on May 2.

ExxonMobil plans to add two plants to the site by 2022—one plant producing 400,000 tons of polymers a year and another that will produce 350,000 tons of feedstocks for polyethylene, waxes and lubricating oils. The company says the move is designed to capitalize on its increased production out of the Permian Basin.

Approximately 2,000 construction jobs will be created as part of the expansion project.

“Global demand for chemicals is expected to be greater than energy demand growth and GDP growth over the next 20 years,” said Darren Woods, chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil.

ExxonMobil is also expanding its Beaumont refinery with the addition of a 250,000-billion barrels per day crude distillation unit to process crude from the Permian.

ExxonMobil’s Baytown facility is the largest integrated petrochemical complex in the U.S. Established in 1919, the complex is located on approximately 3,400 acres along the Houston Ship Channel, about 25 miles east of Houston. The facility includes a refinery, chemical plant, olefins plant, plastics plant and global technology center.

The 10 refineries in the Houston metro process 2.6 million barrels of crude oil per calendar day – 45.1 percent of the state’s total production and 13.8 percent of the nation’s production, according to Greater Houston Partnership data. The entire Gulf Coast Region – including Corpus Christi, Port Arthur and Beaumont, accounts for 86.9 percent of the state’s total production and more than a quarter of production in the United States. The Chemicals, Refining and Plastics subsector employs roughly 59,000 across metro Houston, accounting for about 26% of all manufacturing jobs in the region, according to the most recent figures available.

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