Chevron-Phillips eyes Orange, Texas for site of $5.8 billion petrochemical plant

Fuel Fix:

The city of Orange is on the short list of places where Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. is considering building a massive $5 billion to $6 billion petrochemical expansion, recently released state documents show.

For months, The Woodlands' company's owners, Phillips 66 and Chevron, have said they are considering adding more capacity in the region without saying where or how big of a project it could be.

A request for tax incentives filed with the state comptroller's office shows Chevron Phillips is considering buying 1,700 acres of undeveloped land to house a multi-billion manufacturing facility in Orange.

The project would convert hydrocarbons into ethylene which can be converted into polyethylene plastic pellets, the building block for packaging thousands of consumer goods, including milk jugs, bags, food and beverage containers, household chemicals and detergent bottles.
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The site for the plant would be across the road from an existing facility of the company.  It would create about 3,500 construction jobs and take about four years for completion.  A similar facility created around 1,000 permanent jobs after completion.

The petrochemical business has been booming on the Texas Gulf coast to take advantage of the natural gas feedstock from the shale wells.  If the plant is constructed on this site it should have access to port facilities in Port Arthur and Orange.