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February 29, 2008

Valero expansion expands community opportunities

By David Ball

PORT ARTHUR — The announcement Thursday by Valero that it will invest $2.4 billion in the Port Arthur Refinery will add 2,000 more construction workers to the job rolls that local officials say will keep the area’s economy expanding.

The project, which is to be completed in 2011, will include a 50,000 barrel-per-day hydrocracker, a 45,000 barrel-per-day coker and changes to other units.

“It will increase our production from 325,000 barrels to 405,000 barrels-per-day,” Plant Manager Greg Gentry said. “We’ve been in the planning stages for a year. It will help us utilize our crude capacity by constructing a hydrocracker unit and a coker unit. It will be a $2.2 billion projects. Thirty permanent jobs will be created and 2,000 construction members a day will be employed at the peak. Construction will start in the next two or three months. The hydrocracker unit should be completed in the fourth quarter of 2010 and the coker unit in the first quarter of 2011.”

Valero Chief Executive Officer Bill Klesse said the expansion will meet the demand for diesel both domestically and around the world.

Jefferson County Judge Ron Walker called the news of the expansion as “unbelievable.”

“It’s great to be a part of the good news,” Walker said. “Things are happening; from the workforce to housing. East Texas is the place to live.”

Port Arthur City Manager Steve Fitzgibbons said the expansion is another indicator of tremendous economic development in Port Arthur.

“It will certainly play a major part of the area’s prosperity,” he said. “It means more jobs and more investment.”

Fitzgibbons hopes the boom will create affordable housing opportunities that citizens can maintain and funds to revitalize basic city services.

“In the past, quite a number of our people were home owners, but then the jobs went away and led to deterioration and blight. We need training to take advantage of this economic development boom We have much brighter opportunities for improvements to the community,” he said.

State Rep. Alan Ritter hopes to see other business expansion for the area in addition to the industrial expansion.

“It’s (industrial expansions) is our core business. It’s a lot better than dealing with issues of high unemployment, or we can’t do this or that. I want to congratulate everyone who was involved with this. It’s good for Southeast Texas,” Ritter said.

Port Arthur Chamber of Commerce President Mary Ann Reid said she is excited about everything that is going on in the area.

“There were so many bad times after Hurricane Rita, and now we’re back with a boom. We have come so far. But now is not a time to sit back. We need to get moving. We need to do training and what to do to get the work,” she said. “What about tomorrow? What will we look like six months from now, a year from now, two years? Who’s going to fill the motel rooms we built and will our workers stay in the houses that were built?”

We’re not looking for temporary fixes. Are we fixed for today and for the day after? We need to keep moving forward.”

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