Exxon's big Beaumont petrochemical expansion complete - Houston Chronicle

Texas is now Exxon Mobil's largest polyethylene producer after the Irving company started production on a huge new polyethylene line in Beaumont that expands the petrochemical plant's capacity by 65 percent.

Exxon Mobil said Wednesday it the new polyethylene units in Beaumont boosts production by 650,000 tons per year, bringing site capacity to nearly 1.7 million tons per year at the Beaumont plant. The multi-billion investment builds on other recent investments Exxon recently completed in 2017, when it added two new polyethylene lines to its Mont Belvieu, Texas plant.

Polyethylene is one of the most common types of plastics and is a cornerstone in the production of thousands of consumer goods. Huge supplies of ethane unleashed from the shale boom in Texas are helping to fuel a boom in ethylene and polyethylene manufacturing on the Gulf Coast with more than $170 billion in new petrochemical capacity planned or added in the region since 2010, according to the American Chemistry Council.

RELATED: Exxon-SABIC to start construction on $10B plant near Corpus Christi 

"The availability of new supplies of domestically produced natural gas liquids provides us with a significant advantage when expanding polyethylene production to meet worldwide demand growth," said Karen McKee, president of Exxon Mobil Chemical Company in a statement. "Our unique polyethylene products offer enhanced performance benefits to our customers, including strength and ease of processing, compared with commodity products."

Exxon said the Beaumont project will help "meet strong global demand growth for polyethylene, particularly high-performance products used for liquid and food packaging, construction liners and agricultural films."

The project comes as polyethylene capacity swells on the Gulf Coast, sparking concerns from some analysts that there could be some over capacity in the coming years. Global demand for ethylene is expected to grow by 5 million to 6 million tons per a year - but another wave of new ethylene related projects coming online from now until 2030 should keep the ethylene market oversupplied for at least the next seven years, meaning lower prices and profits, according to the analyst and research firm Wood Mackenzie.

EARLIER: Exxon to invest $2B into Baytown petrochemical expansion

The Beaumont project created 2,000 jobs during peak construction and currently supports approximately 40 permanent jobs, Exxon said. Operations associated with the Beaumont expansion are expected to increase regional economic activity by $20 billion in the first 13 years, according to 2015 economic impact study commissioned by Exxon by  Impact Data Source.

Meanwhile Exxon Mobil also is investing $2 billion into expanding its Baytown petrochemical plant in a project that is expected to generate 2,000 construction jobs.

The Beaumont and Baytown expansions are part of Exxon Mobil's  $20 billion Growing the Gulf initiative announced in 2017. The initiative includes plans to build and expand manufacturing facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast, creating more than 45,000 jobs across the region, Exxon said.

Exxon also breaking ground on a $10 billion petrochemical complex near Corpus Christi in a joint venture with the Saudi Arabia oil company SABIC.

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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Exxon-starts-big-new-Beaumont-petrochemical-plant-14119175.php

2019-07-24 14:24:00Z
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