The geology that facilitates the massive petrochemical industry east of Houston

Fuel Fix:

They say geography is destiny, but in this small city east of Houston, the force shaping its history, economy and future is geology.

Mont Belvieu is built atop a salt dome formed more than 100 million years ago from deposits likely left by an ancient inland sea that cut across the North American continent. For more than 60 years, energy companies have used it as a natural storage tank, carving out salt caverns some 3,000 feet deep to hold millions of barrels of petroleum products.

Today, those caverns are increasingly filled with ethane and other natural gas liquids that feed the plastics and chemical industries, making Mont Belvieu and its neighbor to the south, Baytown, the focal point of the Gulf Coast petrochemical boom. Here, where rice fields once stretched as far as the eye could see, Exxon Mobil alone has invested some $6 billion to dramatically expand its 36-year-old plastics plant as well as its sprawling refining and chemicals complex in Baytown.
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There is more with a link to a longer story on the Houston Chronicle.   The plants use a byproduct of the oil and gas production, ethane to make a myriad of products for which the proponents of alternative energy have no serious alternative.  Some of the material goes into components of cars, trucks, and aircraft be they operating on fossil fuels or batteries.  They create packaging for products from food to other goods sold at retail.