ExxonMobil’s Charles Dabadie: Growing the Gulf leads to ‘long-term viability’
According to Charles Dabadie, Americas regional manufacturing manager for ExxonMobil Chemical Co., innovative technologies and a newly found supply of natural gas have made North America globally competitive. This has led to resurgence in American manufacturing, with North America no longer being a "mature" region.
Where there's an abundance of energy, investments follow. Through its new Growing the Gulf initiative, ExxonMobil is planning to invest more than $20 billion over 10 years to build and expand manufacturing facilities in the U.S. Gulf region.
"These projects are expected to create more than 45,000 jobs, of which more than 12,000 are full-time jobs," Dabadie explained. "These are well-paying jobs, paying workers approximately $100,000 on average annually. Also, in Louisiana, when ExxonMobil brings one job, there's a multiplier of eight more.
"Contractors need to continue to share the economic impact their employees bring to a region when ExxonMobil makes a capital investment. Our contractors, vendors and suppliers make up a huge part of our workforce and ensure a robust economy."
According to Dabadie, Growing the Gulf articulates how much confidence ExxonMobil has in opportunities in the Gulf. However, this time of investment is a window; a strong business and energy environment doesn't last forever.
"Projects come to a specific area because of factors such as smart, predictable tax and regulatory structures and strong infrastructure," he explained. "Tax incentive and economic development programs, such as the Industrial Tax Exemption Program, promote investment and long-term prosperity. For example, over the past five years, ExxonMobil Baton Rouge paid $190 million in property taxes alone. Annually, the company pays 7.8 percent of Baton Rouge's total property taxes. These investments have significant, sustainable impacts on the local economies."
Growth the Gulf: Investing in America
Growing the Gulf involves investments in 11 different projects, which cover major chemical, refining, lubricant and LNG projects along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. The Golden Pass Products LNG project and most of the new chemical capacity investment in the Gulf region are geared toward external markets, which will help boost the U.S.'s exports to Asia and elsewhere.
"I'm in my 30th year of working in this industry, and I've never seen anything like this," Dabadie said. "When an investment comes to a state like what's happening with Growing the Gulf, this leads to long-term viability of an area."
ExxonMobil's Growing the Gulf investments began in 2013 and are expected to continue through at least 2022. These investments are taking place at sites such as Beaumont and Baytown, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Beaumont, Texas
ExxonMobil's Beaumont integrated operations include a refinery and chemical, lubricants and polyethylene plant. ExxonMobil has more than 2,000 area employees, and its operations account for approximately one in every seven jobs in the region. Recent and proposed investments for Beaumont include:
- Increased capacity to an existing crude unit by 20,000 bpd and added flexibility to process light crudes. The increase was made possible in large part by abundant, affordable supplies of U.S. light crude from shale.
- Construction to increase production of ultra-low sulfur fuels by approximately 40,000 bpd. Start-up of the technology, which uses a proprietary catalyst system to remove sulfur while minimizing octane loss, is expected in 2018, producing gasoline that will meet EPA's Tier 3 specifications.
- Construction of a new production unit at the polyethylene plant that will increase capacity by 65 percent to meet growing demand for high-performance plastics especially well-suited for applications such as liquid and food packaging, construction liners and agricultural films. Start-up is expected in 2019.
- Potential expansion of light crude refining capacity. If the project proceeds, construction would begin in 2019, followed by unit start-up in 2022. New facilities would be integrated into the existing facilities to minimize environmental impact.
Baytown, Texas
ExxonMobil's Baytown complex, which employs a workforce of approximately 7,000, is one of the largest and most technologically advanced refining and petrochemical complexes in the world. The complex is located on approximately 3,400 acres along the Houston Ship Channel, about 25 miles east of Houston. It comprises four manufacturing sites and a global technology center. Investments for Baytown include:
- An ethane steam cracker that will have capacity of up to 1.5 million tons per year and provide ethylene feedstock for two new 650,000-tons-per-year high-performance polyethylene units at the nearby Mont Belvieu facility.
- A world-scale manufacturing facility able to produce up to 50,000 tons of synthetic lubricant base stocks annually. Manufactured using a proprietary metallocene catalyst process, the base stocks offer improved performance characteristics that can help address formulators' lubrication challenges, particularly in industrial applications.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
ExxonMobil operates 33 facilities in Louisiana and employs approximately 5,500 employees and contractors. In the past three years, the company has invested more than $1 billion in capital projects in the Baton Rouge area, which has led to more than 4,500 direct construction jobs. Investments for Baton Rouge include:
- A recently completed 90,000-squarefoot, state-of-the-art aviation lubricants blending, packaging and distribution facility that ships products worldwide. The facility uses the latest manufacturing equipment and a range of sustainable features to increase electrical energy efficiency, including a natural day-lighting panel, a comprehensive recycling program and dedicated water treatment facilities.
- The Sulfur Expansion Project, which increases raw material flexibility and capacity for the refinery and decreases site sulfur emissions during maintenance activities. The project uses ExxonMobil technology to meet or exceed all federal and state requirements for hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide emissions.
ExxonMobil and SABIC have also selected a site in San Patricio County, Texas, for potential development of a jointly owned petrochemical complex on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The proposed multibillion-dollar investment would include a world-scale ethane steam cracker capable of producing 1.8 million tons of ethylene per year, which would feed a monoethylene glycol unit and two polyethylene units. In addition, Golden Pass Products, a partnership of Qatar Petroleum International and ExxonMobil affiliates, is proposing to add facilities to liquefy and export natural gas at the existing Golden Pass LNG import terminal in Sabine Pass, Texas.
"In the end, as I've said before, a predictable tax and regulatory structure are critical to ensuring that manufacturing in the Gulf Coast can continue to grow," Dabadie said. "There's not a guarantee ExxonMobil will continue to invest heavily in one site, so we have to ensure a positive business climate."
Growing the workforce, serving community
Dabadie, a native of Baton Rouge, is responsible for single-unit chemical facilities in New Jersey, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Brazil. He has served on the Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance board of directors and the Capital Region Industry for Sustainable Infrastructure Solutions (CRISIS) coalition. He also serves on the University College Advisory Board at Louisiana State University and is a member of the Louisiana Business and Technology Center advisory board. Dabadie actively supports workforce development programs in the North Baton Rouge and Baker areas, continuing to engage within the community.
"Last year, ExxonMobil Baton Rouge and its employees contributed nearly $5 million to the Baton Rouge area nonprofit organizations and schools," Dabadie said. "Year in and year out, we're performing approximately 40,000 workforce hours of volunteering, whether it's Habitat for Humanity, Capital Area United Way or the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. This shows if you took ExxonMobil out of an area it has been in for a long time, there would be a huge void."
For more information, visit www.corporate.exxonmobil.com/technology/growing-the-gulf.