Construction on the third crude unit at the Beaumont refinery follows the company’s final investment decision on the expansion project. The new unit will expand light crude oil refining and overall will increase the refinery’s capacity by 250,000 barrels per day.
ExxonMobil said that the new refining unit, which is expected to be placed into operations by 2022, is supported by the increased crude oil production in the Permian Basin.
The expansion project is likely to generate up to 1,850 jobs during construction along with 40-60 permanent jobs upon its completion.
ExxonMobil Fuels and Lubricants president Bryan Milton said: “With access to terminals, railways, pipelines and waterways nearby, the Beaumont refinery is strategically positioned to benefit from Permian production growth.
“The addition of a third crude unit in Beaumont will enhance the refinery’s competitive position and truly establish it as a leader in the U.S. refining industry.”
The Beaumont Refinery has a processing capacity of 366,000 barrels of crude oil per day. It is capable of producing 2.8 billion gallons of gasoline annually.
Some of the products to come out of the refinery are premium and regular gasoline, low sulfur diesel fuel, jet fuel, liquid petroleum gases, fuel oil, blendstock, petroleum coke and petroleum feedstocks.
The Beaumont Refinery, which has a workforce of around 1,100 people, had gone through multiple expansion projects in the past such as SCANFiner, BLADE and ISOM.
In September 2018, ExxonMobil opened a new ultra-low sulfur fuels unit at the Beaumont Refinery under the SCANFiner project. The new unit will help the refinery to increase its ultra-low sulfur fuels production by 45,000 barrels per day.
In 2016, ExxonMobil took up a project at the Texan refinery to increase the capacity of a crude unit by 20,000 barrels per day while also adding the flexibility to process light crudes.
The oil and gas major has been planning to construct and expand manufacturing facilities in the US Gulf region under its $20bn Growing the Gulf initiative, which will cover 11 major chemical, refining, lubricant and liquefied natural gas projects at new and existing facilities along the Texas and Louisiana coasts.
