Port Neches Research Articles

TPC exits bankruptcy

TPC Group has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Houston-based company refines other firms’ crude C 4 streams into intermediates such as butene and butadiene and also makes some C 4 derivatives itself. In a string of setbacks, its Port Neches, Texas, complex exploded in 2019, and the rest of its operations were affected by the early-2021 cold snap in Texas. TPC also faced difficulties arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, higher commodity prices, and supply chain snags. The company emerges from bankruptcy with $950 million of its $1.3 billion in secured debt removed from its balance sheet and reduced litigation liabilities from the explosion.

TPC files for bankruptcy

After a rough few years, TPC Group has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company, which processes crude C4 streams into butene and butadiene and makes other C4 derivatives, had an explosion at its Port Neches, Texas, facility in November 2019. It also experienced outages related to severe cold in Texas in early 2021. TPC’s bankruptcy reorganization will resolve its liabilities from the Port Neches incident and will remove $950 million in debt from its balance sheet.

Ethylene hitting the market

US petrochemical makers are bringing a large slug of ethylene capacity online. Indorama Ventures has started up an ethylene cracker in Westlake, Louisiana, with capacity of 440,000 metric tons (t) per year. The facility had been closed since 2001, and Indorama revamped it to bring it back online. The output will back integrate Indorama’s ethylene oxide and glycol plant in Clear Lake, Texas, and the ethylene oxide–propylene oxide plant in Port Neches, Texas, that it recently acquired from Huntsman. Work on the cracker was completed last May, but Indorama didn’t start it immediately because of the availability of cheap ethylene. In another back integration, Shintech is starting up a 500,000 t ethylene cracker in Plaquemine, Louisiana. The plant will supply raw materials for its polyvinyl chloride business. Another vinyls producer, Formosa Plastics, is opening a cracker in Point Comfort, Texas, where it will bring a low-density polyethylene unit online in

Indorama to buy big division from Huntsman

In an effort to diversify beyond its core polyester business, the acquisitive Thai chemical maker Indorama Ventures has struck its largest deal yet: the purchase of Huntsman Corp.’s chemical intermediates and surfactants businesses for $2.1 billion. Indorama says the acquisition advances its goal to be a global, diversified chemical company. Huntsman says the deal will allow it to focus on businesses such as polyurethanes and advanced materials. Pending regulatory approvals, the sale should close by the end of the year. The acquisition will bolster Indorama’s US footprint with the addition of facilities in Texas in Chocolate Bayou, Dayton, and Port Neches. The Port Neches site includes an ethylene cracker that complements a cracker in Lake Charles, Louisiana, that Indorama purchased in 2015. The deal also includes surfactant facilities in India and Australia. Overall, it adds about $1.7 billion to Indorama’s $11.4 billion in annual sales. Besides strengthening Indorama’s polyester feedstock

Emissions and ambient air monitoring trends of lower olefins across Texas from 2002 to 2012

Texas has the largest ambient air monitoring network in the country with approximately 83 monitoring sites that measure ambient air concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The lower olefins, including 1,3-butadiene, ethylene, isoprene, and propylene, are a group of VOCs that can be measured in both 24h/every sixth-day canister samples and continuous 1-h Automated Gas Chromatography (AutoGC) samples. Based on 2012 Toxics Release Inventory data, the total reported industrial air emissions in Texas for these olefins, as compared to total national reported air emissions, were 79% for 1,3-butadiene, 62% for ethylene, 76% for isoprene, and 54% for propylene, illustrating that Texas industries are some of the major emitters for these olefins. The purpose of this study was to look at the patterns of annual average air monitoring data from 2002 to 2012 using Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) data for these four lower olefins. It should be emphasized that monitors may not be located close to or downwind of the highest emitters of these lower olefins. In addition, air monitors only provide a snapshot in time of air concentrations for their respective locations, and may not be able to discriminate emissions between specific sources.In 2012, the highest annual average air concentration for 1,3-butadiene was 1.28ppb by volume (ppbv), which was measured at the Port Neches monitoring site in Region 10-Beaumont. For ethylene, the highest 2012 annual average air concentration was 5.77ppbv, which was measured at the Dona Park monitoring site in TCEQ Region 14-Corpus Christi. Although reported industrial emissions of isoprene are predominantly from the Houston and Beaumont regions, trees are natural emitters of isoprene, and the highest ambient air concentrations tend to be from regions with large areas of coniferous and hardwood forests. This was observed with TCEQ Region 5-Tyler, which had the two highest isoprene annual average air concentrations for 2012: 0.56ppbv at the Karnack monitoring site and 0.47ppbv at the Longview monitoring site. For propylene, the highest 2012 annual average air concentration was recorded at the HRM 7 monitoring site in TCEQ Region 12-Houston, which was 7.9ppbv. A significant portion of the total 2012 industrial propylene emissions were also reported in TCEQ Region 12-Houston. Although some individual monitors showed increased annual averages from 2002 to 2012, there was a general decreasing trend present across the state for all four lower olefins examined. The annual average air concentrations of the four lower olefins were well below their respective Air Monitoring Comparison Values (AMCVs) and are not expected to cause long-term or chronic adverse health effects.

Spatial and temporal trend evaluation of ambient concentrations of 1,3-butadiene and chloroprene in Texas

This paper provides information on 1,3-butadiene (BD) and chloroprene as atmospheric pollutants in Texas and reviews available emission estimates and monitoring data. Ambient BD concentrations in most areas of Texas are predominantly influenced by on-road and off-road vehicular emissions or biomass burning, since BD is a product of combustion. However, large industrial point sources of BD emissions in Texas locally influence ambient concentrations. Total industrial BD emissions to the atmosphere in Texas for 2003 were estimated at 695 tonnes per year (TPY), approximately 70% of the total reported national industrial BD air emissions. Since 1998, there have not been any large industrial sources of chloroprene emissions in Texas, and total industrial chloroprene emissions for 2003 was estimated at only 0.09 TPY. Chloroprene was never detected at air monitoring sites. In 2003, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) monitored BD ambient air concentrations at 57 sites, some of which have been operational since 1992. These air monitors provide information on ambient BD concentrations in Texas and allow spatial and temporal trend evaluation. In 2003, annual average concentrations at monitoring sites in Texas ranged from less than the reporting limit of 0.01 to 3.2 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) with an overall average of 0.2 ppbv. This overall average is reduced to 0.1 ppbv if BD data from monitoring sites in Port Neches and Milby Park in Houston, which are located downwind of significant point sources of BD, are excluded. Ambient air monitoring has been conducted in Port Neches and in Milby Park in Houston since 1996 and 1999, respectively. At the Port Neches monitor, trend evaluation indicates that ambient concentrations of BD have declined since 1996 due to cooperative agreements with industries emitting BD. Annual average BD concentrations at the Port Neches monitor decreased from 8.3ppbv in 1996 to 1.3 ppbv in 2003, giving an 8-year average of 3.8 ppbv. Annual average BD concentrations at the Milby Park monitor varied between 2.1 and 4.4 ppbv from 1999 through 2003, giving a 5-year average of 3.1 ppbv. The results of cancer cluster studies based on Cancer Registry 1995-2001 incidence data and 1993-2002 mortality data conducted by the Texas Department of State Health Services for zip codes 77017/77012 (Houston) and 77651 (Port Neches) will be presented.

US: Columbian — carbon black

This paper provides information on 1,3-butadiene (BD) and chloroprene as atmospheric pollutants in Texas and reviews available emission estimates and monitoring data. Ambient BD concentrations in most areas of Texas are predominantly influenced by on-road and off-road vehicular emissions or biomass burning, since BD is a product of combustion. However, large industrial point sources of BD emissions in Texas locally influence ambient concentrations. Total industrial BD emissions to the atmosphere in Texas for 2003 were estimated at 695 tonnes per year (TPY), approximately 70% of the total reported national industrial BD air emissions. Since 1998, there have not been any large industrial sources of chloroprene emissions in Texas, and total industrial chloroprene emissions for 2003 was estimated at only 0.09 TPY. Chloroprene was never detected at air monitoring sites. In 2003, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) monitored BD ambient air concentrations at 57 sites, some of which have been operational since 1992. These air monitors provide information on ambient BD concentrations in Texas and allow spatial and temporal trend evaluation. In 2003, annual average concentrations at monitoring sites in Texas ranged from less than the reporting limit of 0.01 to 3.2 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) with an overall average of 0.2 ppbv. This overall average is reduced to 0.1 ppbv if BD data from monitoring sites in Port Neches and Milby Park in Houston, which are located downwind of significant point sources of BD, are excluded. Ambient air monitoring has been conducted in Port Neches and in Milby Park in Houston since 1996 and 1999, respectively. At the Port Neches monitor, trend evaluation indicates that ambient concentrations of BD have declined since 1996 due to cooperative agreements with industries emitting BD. Annual average BD concentrations at the Port Neches monitor decreased from 8.3 ppbv in 1996 to 1.3 ppbv in 2003, giving an 8-year average of 3.8 ppbv. Annual average BD concentrations at the Milby Park monitor varied between 2.1 and 4.4 ppbv from 1999 through 2003, giving a 5-year average of 3.1 ppbv. The results of cancer cluster studies based on Cancer Registry 1995–2001 incidence data and 1993–2002 mortality data conducted by the Texas Department of State Health Services for zip codes 77017/77012 (Houston) and 77651 (Port Neches) will be presented.

Field Evidence of Subsidence and Faulting Induced by Hydrocarbon Production in Coastal Southeast Texas

ABSTRACT Three large, mature hydrocarbon fields in coastal southeast Texas were examined to evaluate competing hypotheses of wetland losses and to characterize subaerial and submerged surfaces near reactivated faults and zones of subsidence. Detailed topographic and bathymetric profiles and shallow cores at the Port Neches, Clam Lake, and Caplen Fields provide a basis for distinguishing between (1) extensive land-surface subsidence without significant subaqueous erosion, and (2) localized minor subsidence near faults accompanied by extensive subaqueous erosion. Subaqueous erosion results from submergence of wetlands, current and wave excavation of surface sediments and organic detritus, and exportation of the eroded sediments through adjacent water bodies with swift currents such as navigation channels. Responses to induced subsidence and fault reactivation are different at each field site. Detailed stratigraphic correlations of sediment cores show that at Port Neches, subsidence of 35 to 90 cm and minor marsh erosion (20 to 35 cm) created more than 15 million m3 of accommodation space in a nearly circular pattern over the field. At Caplen the marsh surface subsided only about 4 cm, but the surface eroded 30 to 40 cm vertically, creating about 3.5 million m3 of accommodation space. The breakup of wetlands and their conversion to open water appears to be in an initial stage at the Clam Lake Field where marsh plants are being submerged along a fault. The different surficial responses and wetland losses at each field are related to the primary type of hydrocarbon produced and the rates of production. Although the absolute magnitude of induced subsidence may be less than 1 m, even a minor reduction in land elevation is sufficient to cause major wetland losses.

Huntsman to buy four ICI businesses

In a much-anticipated move, Huntsman Corp. will buy four businesses from U.K.-based ICI for $2.8 billion. The deal covers ICI's polyurethane, titanium dioxide, aromatics, and olefins businesses, with combined sales of about $3.2 billion in 1998, and includes manufacturing sites around the world. The firms also discussed a deal for ICI's acrylics business, but were unable to reach an agreement. The transaction will be completed in stages. For the next three years, ICI will retain 30% ownership of a new company to be called Huntsman/ICI. This company will be formed from the four ICI businesses and Huntsman's propylene oxide business, which consists primarily of a facility in Port Neches, Texas. After three years, ICI will complete the sale by turning over its share of the new company to Huntsman. The companies expect to complete the deal by midsummer, following approval from ICI shareholders and U.S. and European regulatory authorities. Senior leadership of Huntsman/ICI will ...

Huntsman buys Texaco's last chemicals facility

Texaco will make its exit from chemicals production with the sale of its Port Neches, Texas, petrochemical derivatives complex to Huntsman Corp. Huntsman will pay Texaco $600 million for the complex, which Huntsman has managed since it came on-line in August 1994. The transaction is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 1997. The site, which has 400 million lb per year of propylene oxide capacity and more than 15,000 barrels per day of methyl tert -butyl ether (MTBE) capacity, was not originally included in Huntsman's purchase of Texaco's other chemical businesses in April 1994. This is the last major step in the sale of Texaco's chemical business and is in keeping with our plans to focus on our core oil and gas business, says Peter I. Bijur, Texaco's chairman and chief executive officer. Texaco's other chemical businesses, purchased by Huntsman for $850 million, included ethylene, propylene, ethylene glycol, and derivative specialty chemicals production ...

Hackberry Oil and Gas Fields in Southeast Texas: Channel/Fan Depositional Systems and Structural Controls: ABSTRACT

Deep-water sandstones of the Hackberry Formation (Oligocene) host significant quantities of oil and gas. They remain one of the most important deep exploration targets in southeasternmost Texas; new fields producing from the Hackberry have been discovered at a steady rate from 1946 to the present. The Hackberry contains two hydrocarbon plays. The updip play is relatively shallow, oil-rich, and lies near the updip limit of deep-water deposition. Some of the fields in this play actually produce from shallow-water Frio sandstones of Hackberry age rather than from Hackberry sandstones. The downdip play is gas rich and generally geopressured. The reservoirs lie either within or on the flanks of major channel systems and are often bounded updip by small growth faults. The discontinuous distribution and complex lithofacies of these channel and fan sands demand a careful understanding of the component depositional environments in order to discover and efficiently produce hydrocarbons. The Hackberry Formation is a wedge of sand and shale with bathyal fauna that separates upper Frio sandstone and shale from middle and lower Frio shale and sand. The main sandstone lies atop a channeled unconformity at the base of the formation; some sandstones are also found locally within the shale wedge. Sandstones in a typical sand-rich channel evolve upward from a basal channel-fill sand to more widespread valley-fill deposits of interbedded sand and shale. Topmost are proximal to medial fan deposits with slightly meandering channels and overbank turbidites. This sequence suggests that the Hackberry sands were laid down by an aggrading, onlapping submarine canyon-fan complex that eroded headward into the contemporaneous Frio barrier bar-strand plain. Regional mapping and seismic i terpretation outlines a network of partly sand-filled channels extending from the strand plain toward the southeast. The downdip limits of lower Hackberry sand are not defined by available well data. The early structural history of the area is obscure, but Vicksburg-age faulting associated with continental slope sedimentation is possible. Small growth faults displace the Hackberry section less than 500 ft (150 m) and extend upward into the Miocene strata. Isopach and isolith maps indicate that the Orange, Port Neches, and Fannett salt domes were active uplifts during Frio and Anahuac deposition. Near Spindletop dome, however, only a north-south trending salt-cored ridge was present. The Hackberry channels are somewhat influenced by salt activity, but major channel axes extend across the uplifts. The genesis of the deep-water Hackberry embayment is obscure. Middle Frio strata underlying the Hackberry are neritic shelf deposits to the west but may include deeper water shales in the central and eastern parts of the area. The embayment may have formed by subsidence of a large part of the Frio-Vicksburg continental shelf with consequent canyon erosion. Alternatively, the Hackberry canyons may be analogous to canyons currently forming on the flanks of the Niger delta in an entirely deep-water regime. End_of_Article - Last_Page 458------------

Growth Faults and Salt Tectonics in Houston Diapir Province--Relative Timing and Exploration Significance: ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT Oil and gas accumulation in Gulf Coast Tertiary strata is mainly controlled by regional growth faults and by salt-related structures. Salt forms the most prominent set of structures in the Houston diapir province of southeast Texas. Recent work in three study areas shows that the Tertiary growth-fault trends so well displayed along strike to the southwest continue through this salt basin as well, but have been deformed by later salt movement. In the Katy area, seismic data disclose early (pre-Wilcox) salt pillows downdip of the Cretaceous reef trend. Progradation of the lower Wilcox Rockdale delta system created a linear growth-fault trend above and seaward of the pillows. Salt stocks were injected upward from the pillows in Claiborne time and were flanked by deep withdrawal basins and turtle structures. Major oil accumulations occur over an inferred turtle structure and over deep-seated salt domes. The lower Wilcox growth-fault trend deformed by the later salt flowage is virtually unexplored, although geopressured gas production from these low-permeability deltaic reservoirs exists in adjacent areas. In Brazoria County, a major lower Frio growth-fault trend affecting the Houston delta system was deformed by later salt domes, by a salt-withdrawal basin, and by a possible turtle structure at Chocolate Bayou. A productive geopressured aquifer exists in the salt-withdrawal basin bounded by the previously formed growth faults. In Jefferson County, in contrast, salt tectonic activity and growth faulting appear to have been coeval. Early salt-cored ridges continued to rise throughout Frio deposition; growth faults occur both updip and downdip. Salt diapirism may have occurred throughout Frio time at Orange and Port Neches salt domes, but other domes such as Spindletop formed in post-Frio time. Hydrocarbons accumulated over the salt domes in growth-fault anticlines and in stratigraphic traps. Contemporaneous, low-intensity growth faulting and salt movement may be ascribed to the minimal loading imposed by the sand-poor lower and middle Frio section. Recognition that shelf-margin growth faulting preceded the development of the present pattern of domes and basins has important implication for hydrocarbon exploration. Growth faults may be migration paths for hydrocarbons; furthermore, early-formed traps, distorted by salt movement, may still be found to contain hydrocarbons. Figure 1. Regional shelf-margin trends of the Gulf Coast Basin and location of the Katy, Pleasant Bayou, and Port Arthur study areas. Map from Winker and Edwards (1983). End_Page 83-------------------------

Mortality among ethylene oxide workers.

Because of reports linking an increased risk of leukemia with exposure to ethylene oxide, a mortality study of workers with potential exposure to ethylene oxide at the Texaco Chemical Company Plant in Port Neches, Tex., was undertaken. A total of 767 males with potential exposure to ethylene oxide were identified. Forty-six deaths occurred in this cohort with 80 expected (standardized mortality ratio; SMR = 58). No deaths from leukemia were seen, nor were there any statistically significant excesses from any specific causes of death.

IMPACT OF THE ESSO BAYWAY OIL SPILL ON SALT MARSH MACRO FAUNA

ABSTRACT On January 28, 1979, approximately 6,000 barrels of light Arabian crude oil was spilled into the lower Neches River near Port Neches, Texas. Much of the oil became stranded in the adjacent brackish-freshwater marsh, which is considered to be an important nursery area for postlarval penaeid shrimp. The purpose of this investigation was to assess the long-term impact of the spill on the macrofauna of the marsh. Petroleum hydrocarbon concentrations in marsh sediments were high (up to 7,000 mg/kg dry wt) at all but one unoiled reference station. Due to unusually high rainfall, salinity in the marsh was very low until September 1979, when it rose to 6 to 12 ‰ Macrocrustacean and fish populations were very similar at both oiled and reference stations in terms of species composition, number of species, and number of animals. Species diversity indices were similar at oiled and reference stations. Postlarval penaeid shrimp Penaeus setiferus did not enter the marsh until September when the salinity rose. They were equally abundant at oiled and reference stations. We conclude from this 9-month study that the spilled oil had little or no significant effect on the aquatic macrofauna, including penaeid shrimp, of the Neches River marshes. Environmental factors, salinity, and temperature, had a much greater effect on the marsh populations and obscured any effects that might be attributed to oil.

EFFECTS OF OIL SPILL CLEANUP TECHNIQUES ON A SALT MARSH*

ABSTRACT On January 28, 1979, an oil spill occurred in the lower Neches River near Port Neches, Texas. Southerly winds carried oil into Bessie Heights Marsh affecting some of the vegetation which is primarily Spartina patens. This study was designed to assess the effects of three methods of oil spill cleanup and to determine which method was least harmful to the marsh. All methods begin with absorption and low-water-pressure washing followed by either (1) burning, (2) cutting and removing, or (3) leaving the affected vegetation alone. Grams per square meter of harvested vegetation, numbers of individuals, numbers of taxa, and diversity of macroinvertebrates were subjected to analysis of variance to test for differences within and between selected treatments. Chi square values utilizing numbers of individuals for all taxa occurring in at least 50 percent of the sample plots were also calculated. Statistical analysis of data indicated that burning the impacted vegetation had the most harmful effect. Leaving the vegetation alone after the bulk of the oil had been removed appeared to be the best method of cleanup of an oiled Spartina patens marsh.

Neches Butadiene Unit Opened

ON A soggy piece of Texas prairie American engineers have erected a technical colossus—a testimony to man's sheer determination to conquer his enemies, whether human or natural. The human enemies are the Axis powers, the natural enemies were swamp, flood, insects, and gravity, and the colossus is the Neches Butane Products Co. at Port Neches, Texas. Out of this plant will come some 100,000 short tons of butadiene per year equivalent to one seventh of that necessary for our rubber program. Into the plant went the engineering and construction genius of a nation of builders, and at times, in the face of obstacles raised by the perversities of men and Nature, that determined genius seemed slated to fail. But today one half of the immense Neches plant has been formally dedicated, and the other half is nearing completion. Like most of the famous yarns of achievement, the exciting story of the Neches, which is the ...