When Thailand-listed Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. announced plans to restart the old Occidental facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the plant had lain dormant for 15 years, making its revamp an impressive feat.
Indorama Ventures made a significant investment to refurbish the mothballed ethane cracker, purchasing the ethylene cracker along with the rest of the site's 240 acres to implement new state-ofthe- art technology and install new piping, tanks, process units and systems, and major modifications to compressors and distillation systems.
However, the startup of the facility did not initially go as planned, so the company made the decision to bring in new management to complete the task, hiring Tony Barre as senior site director in April 2019. He immediately shut down the facility; interviewed every single employee; conducted audits and testing of equipment, pipes and processes; and invested additional capital to restart the facility. Upon restart, the facility was producing on-spec ethylene within 48 hours.
"Imagine the monumental task of bringing this idled, dormant manufacturing facility back to life - merging old technology with new equipment and state-of-the-art technologies in a facility where only the lights were left on, ditches were overgrown with weeds and grass, and exposed equipment had not been maintained," Barre explained. "Indorama Ventures stepped up with the resources and worldwide expertise to bring this community eyesore back to life."
In February, the facility commenced commercial operations, taking advantage of the U.S. shale gas revolution and providing long-term ethylene supply to the Indorama Ventures Oxide and Glycols (IVOG) plant in Clear Lake, Texas, as well as to the integrated ethylene oxide and propylene oxide assets Indorama Ventures recently acquired in Port Neches, Chocolate Bayou and Dayton, Texas. At full operating capacity, the Lake Charles facility will generate approximately 430,000 metric tons of ethylene and 30,000 metric tons of propylene per year, with the capability to process both ethane and propane.
The plant was originally built by Cities Service Oil Co. in 1969 and was purchased by Occidental in 1982. Equistar acquired the facility in 1986 and idled it in 2001, where it remained dormant until Indorama Ventures purchased it in 2015.
"We are proud of our investment in southwest Louisiana - creating jobs and maintaining a payroll of over $20 million a year," Barre said. "A key goal for Indorama Ventures is to ensure a positive impact on southwest Louisiana, with expectations for potential future expansion and growth of our site. Indorama Ventures is currently investing significantly in multiple sites across the southeast U.S. and Texas, including an active $2 billion joint venture project in Corpus Christi, Texas, and the recent investment (closed in January) in a $2.1 billion acquisition of some assets from Huntsman Corp."
Challenged with a shortage of qualified labor due to unprecedented industrial growth in southwest Louisiana, Barre immediately stabilized the workforce by offering competitive pay, benefits and additional training to ultimately restart the ethylene facility. "We had 12 operators quit at the same time, accepting employment at another local facility," stated Barre. "The hiring burden created a hardship for our operations. I've personally never seen such a high demand for skilled workers."
Bringing in an expert
With a degree in chemical engineering from Texas A&M University, prior positions at Dow in maintenance and reliability (M&R), and a total of 35 years of manufacturing and engineering experience in the global chemical industry, Barre was recruited by Indorama Ventures to handle the Lake Charles restart due to his industry expertise in running world-scale production units.
In addition to handling the M&R of Dow's Hydrocarbons & Energy business assets globally, Barre previously held a leadership role in Dow's Oyster Creek Division, overseeing five world-scale production units as well as taking direct operations responsibility for the light hydrocarbon cracker at the Oyster Creek, Texas, site. He identified "people leadership, initiative, and business and technical acumen" as the most important skills for his current position.
"The 'people leadership' component is the most important," Barre said. "We have a large number of talented people, but you have to develop and build them into a cohesive team that's effective at what they're charged to do. Just having a collection of technically knowledgeable people doesn't get you there. You need to provide organizational structure and have defined roles and responsibilities to make sure people are matched with the right responsibilities for their skillset.
"There's a very large training component to prepare and equip everyone to do their jobs. And in order to provide that, you have to have some business acumen as well as understand the technology and the plant you're running."
Another key aspect of Barre's position is acting as a community ambassador on behalf of the plant, which is located within 2 miles of its three neighboring communities: Maplewood/Sulphur to the north, Prien/South Lake Charles to the southeast and Carlyss to the west. "We believe these entire communities allow us the privilege to operate - it's not our right," Barre explained. "We are committed to operating our business in a socially and environmentally sustainable way that positively impacts people, products and our community.
"For the first six to eight months I was here, I spent 30 to 40 percent of my time meeting with community leaders - everyone from parish police jurors to mayors, law enforcement, and state and federal elected officials. I spent a lot of time forging relationships with them; assuring them that we were going to run a safe, compliant operation; and building trust that I would fulfill that commitment.
"We have worked hard to establish credibility with our community stakeholders. We want to be viewed as a positive and important resource here in southwest Louisiana. Building this reputation has not been easy, so it's important that we continue to nurture it and make it stronger."
Zero incidents
At Indorama Ventures, health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) are core, uncompromised values that protect people, the environment and assets - in that order. In fact, the strength and commitment of Indorama Ventures to its HSSE values has resulted in an achievement of zero lost-workday incidents since the inception of the Lake Charles site -- from acquisition to revamp to operations.
"The company continually strives to implement HSSE programs and processes that incorporate more than simply regulatory compliance or even best practices," said Barre. "We strive to 'do the right thing' for our employees, our contractors, their families and the community where we live and work. Supporting this program and our successes is, first and foremost, a team of highly qualified individuals, state-of-the-art monitoring tools and equipment, and an arsenal of emergency response equipment inclusive of a fully stocked ambulance, a hazmat truck, a brush truck, a pumper truck, an incident command truck and a 100-foot-ladder fire response vehicle."
In short, Barre summarized, Indorama Ventures' employees are the key to its success. "This team worked extremely hard to rebuild this facility," stated Barre. "Together, we were relentless in the pursuit of excellence. Second, we keep ourselves grounded to do what is right, not necessarily what is expedient. We truly believe this will continue to propel us on our journey."
