Great things are happening at Huntsman Port Neches Operations. The team has earned an exceptional safety record, and the site’s new ethylene oxide unit is on line and operating successfully. Site Director Chad Anderson is excited about the future as the company, facility and industry are poised for additional milestones and growth opportunities.
Huntsman is a global manufacturer of chemicals we use every day. Originally known for pioneering innovations in packaging and later for rapid and integrated growth in petrochemicals, Huntsman has approximately 15,000 employees and operates in more than 30 countries worldwide. The company had 2015 revenues of over $10 billion.
The Port Neches, Texas, plant was built in the mid-1940s by Jefferson Chemical Co., a joint venture of Texaco Inc. and American Cyanamid. Jefferson Chemical became a wholly owned subsidiary of Texaco Chemical in 1974. Huntsman acquired the Port Neches businesses in the 1990s from Texaco Chemical.
Key products manufactured at Huntsman Port Neches Operations include amines, ethanolamines, ethylene, ethylene glycols, ethylene oxide (EO), methyl tertiary butyl ether, propylene, propylene glycol, propylene oxide and surfactants.
As a Port Neches native, Anderson was already familiar with both the facility and Huntsman when he took over the helm at Port Neches Operations. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, Anderson served as a process engineer for Quantum Chemical Co., now Equistar Chemicals. He first joined Huntsman in 2003 as a C4 butadiene plant Six Sigma black belt. In 2005, he was named operations manager and led many reliability and production improvements. In 2011, he was promoted to senior manager for engineering works and was responsible for all engineering, capital project execution, maintenance and reliability at the Port Neches site. Overall, he has 20 years of chemical manufacturing experience in technical and management roles at Equistar, Akzo Nobel, Arkema, Lucite and Huntsman.
Anderson began his second tour with Huntsman in September 2015 at Port Neches Operations as site director.
“I am responsible for all activities on-site, including environment, health and safety; manufacturing; maintenance; and corporate compliance,” he said. “I set the tone for the way we do business and in turn set expectations for all employees and contractors at Huntsman’s largest manufacturing site.”
Taking action
In addition to a firm understanding of what it takes to make a chemical plant work, Anderson explained the key skills for someone to be successful in his position are to be observant and listen.
“It takes listening to your employees, team and community as well as management, then using the information and translating it into an actionable plan to move forward,” he said. “You don’t need to be the best process engineer or the best mechanical engineer; the key is to take action based on what you hear and what you see.”
While Anderson lays the foundation for this “take charge” mentality, the Port Neches Operations team continues to take it to new heights. Together, they have achieved a total recordable incident rate of around 0.3 for almost three years.
“That is almost eight times lower than the 2014 U.S. chemical industry average of 2.3,” Anderson said. “I believe we are among the industry’s best because we have a very keen focus on personal and process safety, in addition to regulatory compliance. We ensure that equipment is properly maintained and the design is adequate for the intended use.”
Currently, the team is preparing to roll out a zero harm process.
“For Huntsman, managing safety risks is instrumental in creating a more sustainable company, because it allows us to keep the community secure,” he said. “Huntsman Port Neches Operations is deeply rooted in the communities where our associates and contractors live, work and play.”
The site’s local initiatives include:
• Educational programs, including middle school robotics programs, the Huntsman STEM Innovation Grant program for local teachers, and service on advisory boards at nearby Lamar University and Lamar Institute of Technology.
• Environmental programs, including Earth Day celebrations at its on-site Environmental Education Center and partnerships with Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl and the Coastal Conservation Association.
• Community programs, including the Citizens Advisory Panel and recently leasing 32 acres of Huntsman-owned land for a new community recreation complex.
Additionally, Anderson is involved in the Texas Chemical Council, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, Southeast Texas Plant Managers Forum, Golden Triangle Business Roundtable and the Citizens Advisory Council.
“My team and I spend a lot of time focused on local community efforts, like the Jefferson County Emergency Planning Committee, to let everyone know that we are doing our best to be a good neighbor,” he explained. “We care about the local community and the opportunity they give us to operate in the area.”
‘Masters of own destiny’
Another big news item at Port Neches Operations is its new ethylene oxide unit.
“It is on line and operating very well, producing the quantity and quality we expected it to make,” Anderson said. “This has been a major investment for the facility, increasing our EO capacity by more than 25 percent and making Huntsman Port Neches Operations the largest single-site producer of EO in North America.
“We broke ground in 2013, and today our site and our business will start to reap the rewards of that investment.”
However, this growth is not without the challenge shared by many sites: attracting and retaining qualified talent.
“We are continually making thoughtful investments in the community to establish that talent pipeline,” Anderson said. “To overcome our challenge, I ask myself what we are doing to foster qualified talent and get students involved in STEM activities from a middle school level.
“For those not interested in pursuing a bachelor’s degree, we have helped develop vocational opportunities at the high school level to encourage an interest in becoming a mechanic, electrician or technician. These skills are vital to our operations and sometimes overlooked.
“Another constant challenge is reducing costs while still allocating the right money to the right places to ensure the ongoing safety of our employees and assets. We carefully invest in process safety, including maintenance, hazard analysis, design and engineering.”
The team plans to continue taking charge as it leads in safety and community stewardship into the future.
“If you had asked me 10 years ago if we would see such a massive investment in the petrochemical business in the United States, I would have said no,” Anderson said. “Today, I see us as the masters of our own destiny. Access to low-cost natural gas and the markets we play into have given us the opportunity to capture growth for our sites along the Gulf coast.
“Our plan for the foreseeable future is very much in line with our corporate commitments to our shareholders. Our role is to operate and maintain our assets in a manner that ensures we are achieving efficient, effective and reliable operations.
“At the end of our day, our goal has always been to deliver a workplace that is injury free, event free and compliant. We want our employees to go home safely, our products to stay inside the containment, and we want to remain a good neighbor to our community. If we take care of those three things, we will do our part to meet the expectations of our stakeholders.”
Huntsman Port Neches Operations
2701 Spur 136
Port Neches, TX 77651
www.huntsman.com
Employees: 600 associates and 500 contractors
Products: Amines, ethanolamines, ethylene, ethylene glycols, ethylene oxide, methyl tertiary butyl ether, propylene, propylene glycol, propylene oxide and surfactants
Size: 3,000 acres
