Plans for ExxonMobil's $10 billion Gulf Coast plastics plant progressed this week when the Calhoun County Independent School District board unanimously voted to begin tax break negotiations with the company.
The facility would be located 127 miles southwest of Houston.
Mali Hanley, a consultant and attorney for the Calhoun County Independent School District, emphasized during a public hearing held by the district board that “this is not the final decision tonight” but “the first step in the process” of developing a tax abatement agreement.
According to its December tax abatement application with the district, ExxonMobil, the world's largest private oil company, plans to construct a massive, "world-scale" plastics plant in the county, which has a population of 20,000.
The proposed project would transport gas from the Permian Basin to produce up to 3 million tons of polyethylene plastic pellets annually, primarily for export to Asia. This could become one of the largest such facilities globally.
This wouldn't be ExxonMobil's first venture on the Texas Gulf Coast, where it already operates similar plants in Beaumont, Baytown and Gregory. The project comes on the heels of significant growth in U.S. plastics production, driven by inexpensive gas from Texas and other oilfields. While tax break agreements are a frequent tool in economic development to attract investment, they often spark controversy as critics argue they represent concessions from smaller public entities to large corporations.
