Exxon Mobil Corp. and Saudi Arabia’s state-controlled petrochemicals company formally approved construction of a chemical complex in Texas that will process production from the Permian Basin’s booming oil and natural gas wells.
The project near Corpus Christi will be the world’s largest steam cracker and create $50 billion of “economic output” in the first six years, Exxon and Saudi Basic Industries Corp., known as Sabic, said in a joint statement June 13. The facility will convert hydrocarbons such as ethane and propane to ethylene, a chemical used to make products from plastics to antifreeze.
It marks the latest in several chemical and refining plants set for the Gulf Coast, gaining from ultracheap production from the Permian, the world’s largest shale basin. As explorers boost oil output, associated supplies of gas and liquid byproducts provide some of the cheapest chemical feedstocks in the world.
Situated “on the doorstep of rapidly growing Permian production gives this project significant scale and feedstock advantages,” Exxon CEO Darren Woods said in the statement.