Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) has completed construction on a major expansion project at its refinery in Beaumont.
The project added a third crude distillation unit, which will increase the Beaumont complex’s refinery capacity by 250,000 barrels per day, bringing the total to more than 600,000 bpd once the new unit is operational, the oil and gas giant said in a statement.
Exxon, which is relocating its corporate headquarters to the Houston area later this year, invested $2 billion in the Beaumont refinery expansion. The third crude distillation unit is currently undergoing startup procedures and commissioning, and Exxon said it remains on track to start up during the first quarter.
“We maintained investments in the refinery expansion even through the lows of the pandemic,” Exxon said in the statement. “The $2 billion expansion increases capacity at our Beaumont refinery by 65%.”
The new Beaumont unit will expand Exxon’s refining capacity for light crude oil, the type of oil typically produced from the Permian Basin and other regions of the U.S. The energy giant plans to deploy billions of dollars in upstream capital investments in the Permian Basin this year, Exxon laid out in a corporate plan in December.
After the new unit is commissioned, the Beaumont expansion is expected to create more than 50 new jobs, the company said.
The addition of the new 250,000-bpd light crude distillation unit is expected to make Exxon’s Beaumont refinery the second-largest refinery by capacity in the U.S. It would rank only behind the 626,000-bpd Port Arthur refinery owned by Houston-based Motiva Enterprises LLC, a wholly owned affiliate of Saudi Arabian state oil company Saudi Aramco, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Exxon reached a final investment decision on the expansion and started construction on the new unit in 2019. The company’s Beaumont site also includes chemical, lubricants and polyethylene plants in addition to the refinery.
Last year, Exxon announced plans to move its corporate headquarters from North Texas to its Houston-area campus in City Place, the master-planned community formerly known as Springwoods Village, by the middle of 2023.
Other companies also see opportunity in scaling refining capacity for the light, sweet crude produced in U.S. basins. A Houston-area company has proposed developing a new, 250,000-bpd refinery for light crude on the Texas Gulf Coast.
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