BEAUMONT, Texas — ExxonMobil representatives and the Southeast Texas community gathered Tuesday to celebrate the official start up of the Beaumont refinery expansion project.
The Beaumont Light Atmospheric Distillation Expansion, or BLADE, is a $2 billion expansion project that expected to boost fuel supply and help meet the growing demand for affordable and reliable energy.
The recently completed expansion increased ExxonMobil's local processing capacity by 65% to over 630,000 barrels per day, making Beaumont home to one of the largest refineries in the United States.
BLADE will transfer light crude oils from West Texas into the Beaumont refinery.
"Fossil fuels basically from thousands of years ago, they're in the ground. Our folks take that material out of the ground the crude oil and they bring it into our facility through a pipeline and when we bring it into our facilities we boil it," said Plant Manager Rozena Dendy.
Dendy says the plant will produce four million gallons of diesel a day.
"That's enough to fuel 61,000 long hall trucks, besides that's a lot of trucks, but that means your amazon packages and how do they get to your front steps," Dendy said.
Congressman Randy Weber says this crude oil expansion is necessary to avoid another 1973 oil crisis.
"And I remember the long lines, cars at the gas pumps, gas was rationed. The Saudis in deed could dangle it over our heads that they had control of our energy," Weber said.
Congressman Weber even has a message for President Joe Biden, offering him a special invitation to The Golden Triangle.
"I wish president Biden, I would invite him to come to our area, see what we're doing, see that salt of the earth that we talked about and I think he would find out first hand that this is the place to be. That's what it's all about. It's about Texans it's about the entire community and I think he would be impressed by that."
Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick says the BLADE expansion has a 10-year tax break and in time, will help relieve the burden for residential tax payers.
"We anticipate that for the 40 years or more after this project is done that ExxonMobil will be contributing significantly to our local economy through the payments of property tax with support of local government and we're happy to be partners with them in making that a reality," Branick said.
On March 16, 2023, A 12News crew was given rare access inside the BLADE.
"This expansion is the equivalent of a medium-sized refinery and is a key part of our plans to provide society with reliable, affordable energy products," Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions said. “The new crude unit enables us to produce even more transportation fuels at a time when demand is surging."
The expansion is the largest refinery expansion since 2012, according to an ExxonMobil release. It is supported by the company’s growing crude production in the Permian Basin and is set to help meet growing demands for affordable, reliable energy.
"We broke ground in 2019, for this phenomenal $2 billion project,” Rozena Dendy, plant manager, said. “And even through a pandemic, we continue to lean into this project when others were taking a step back."
The company has hired more than 50 full-time employees to help with the operation of the expanded refinery. Company officials said the expansion is well executed from design to startup and that the global project comes online on time and on budget."
“ExxonMobil maintained its commitment to the Beaumont expansion even through the lows of the pandemic, knowing consumer demand would return and new capacity would be critical in the post-pandemic economic recovery,” McKee said.
Once completed, the expansion is expected to increase total processing capacity to more than 630,000 barrels per day, making it one of the largest refineries in the United States.
Officials said the refinery is connected to pipelines from ExxonMobil’s operations in the U.S. Permian Basin. This provides the company with "significant strategic advantages."
Permian crude oil is processed at the Beaumont refinery. Dendy explained how crude oil goes through their machines.
“We bring it into our atmospheric tower here, and then we boil it to where at different boiling points material comes off of it,” Dendy said. “So what we do after that is we hydrotreat it."
The is 250,000 tons of heavy machinery that helps produce more diesel and gasoline. The fuel then helps Southeast Texans get some of our everyday needs.
“This is about how our kids get around on the school bus, and that they are able to use diesel,’ Dendy said. “How do our amazon packages get to our homes? With the trucks that actually bring it there, as well as food to the 18- wheelers that the use diesel as well.”
The company’s extensive project management experience enabled the new crude and hydrotreater units to start up according to the planned cost and schedule. As the new facility started operations slowly Thursday, safety is still on top of minds for team members.
“Safety is the first and foremost of everything we do,” Dendy said. “Our emergency response team has already drilled in this responses and drilled emergencies."