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Texas Gulf Coast Gets 20 Billion From Santa Oil Can
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4 Comments ::  :: Gulf Coast, Market Analysis |
Texas Gulf Coast Gets 20 Billion From Santa Oil Can
 Over 20 Billion dollars is coming to the northern end of the Texas Gulf Coast about an hour away from the Galveston County beachfront resorts. The biggest capital investment Texas has ever received!
Rule of thumb for what that translates into the local economies is six times the investment as the money churns around changing hands through purchases and real estate development. Making Santa Oil's gift worth over 180 Billion dollars - what changes we'll see in this area from that kind of capital is going to be incredible.
Motiva Enterprises Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco, will invest $7 billion to expand an existing refinery in Port Arthur, less than an hour from Bolivar peninsula beachfront homes, creating the largest oil refinery in the United States.
The expansion will more than double the capacity for the existing refinery to 600,000 barrels a day. It will make enough fuel to fill about 700,000 cars a day. The project should be finished in 2010. The Port Arthur project will surpass Exxon Mobil Corp.'s facility in Beaumont, currently the largest U.S. refinery.
National oil companies such as Saudi Aramco are building refineries and expanding existing ones for several reasons. Iran, Iraq and Venezuela are trying to build refineries to meet domestic demand and lessen imports of gasoline. In theory, expanded refinery production would add supply to the U.S. market and cause gasoline prices to fall.
Workers wanted
In Port Arthur, expansion managers are wrestling with their own cost issues. "Labor is probably going to be our biggest challenge," said Forest Lauher, head of the project expansion for Motiva.
The Beaumont native said there's a shortage of skilled welders in the area, and he's working with construction company Bechtel to train more. Motiva will need at least 4,500 construction workers to build the facilities and 300 people to operate them permanently.
Mr. Lauher said he may have to hire from outside the area, even outside the U.S., to find enough workers.
The Valero Energy Corporation announced that they are going to spend about $2 billion to build a new plant in the Beaumont area and Eastman Chemical said that it plans to operate and invest in two new plants on the Gulf Coast -- including one in Beaumont, Texas.
Eastman Chairman and CEO Brian Ferguson say the new $1.6 billion plant slated for Texas would be located in Beaumont, Texas. Eastman expects the regulatory permit application process to begin later this year, and construction is expected to be under way by early 2009.
Construction employment is expected to peak at 1,300-1,500 workers, with permanent employment expected to be approximately 250. Eastman expects to have an equity position of as much as 50 percent and to announce a co-investor in the near future.
Beaumont ISD school trustees Thursday night approved a tax abatement worth $86 million to help lure Eastman to the area. Jefferson County and the City of Beaumont are expected to approve similar tax abatements for the company.
 The Galveston County Bolivar Resort area is already starting to get interest from new employees getting ready to relocate to the Beaumont Port Arthur area and from support firms doing the development of the expansion of the new facilities.
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The Beaumont Enterprise newspaper reports that over 20,000 news homes will be needed to accommodate incoming employment demand.
- Google trends reports Beaumont is the number one city searched for - regarding real estate - in the entire United States. The Bolivar Peninsula is "Beaumont's Beach"
- Crown Team Texas, the leading resort developer on the Bolivar Peninsula reports that relocating engineers for the new plants, and refinery developers from Bechtel Engineering, have been frequenting their resorts looking for oceanfront second homes and primary homes.
- Interviews with local residents in the area are saying that the building boom is incredible and new shopping malls, hotels, homes and apartments are going up like popcorn.
See our article on Texas Gulf Coast Booms in 2008
More Good "Energy" for the Texas Gulf Coast
 The new pipeline, called "Texas Access Pipeline," would transport crude oil sourced from the Canadian oil sands region in Alberta and from the upper U.S. Midwest to refiners in the Nederland and Houston, Texas, areas.
Enbridge Inc. and ExxonMobil Pipeline Company announced the two companies will conduct a Solicitation for Binding Shipper Commitment for a proposed new pipeline system, to transport crude oil from Patoka, Illinois, to the Texas Gulf Coast. The new pipeline, called "Texas Access Pipeline," would transport crude oil sourced from the Canadian oil sands region in Alberta and from the upper U.S. Midwest to refiners in the Nederland and Houston, Texas, areas.
The proposed project comprises a new 768-mile, 30-inch diameter pipeline, which would transport crude oil from Patoka, Illinois southward to Nederland, Texas. Also proposed is an 88-mile, 24-inch pipeline to transport crude oil onward from Nederland to a delivery point in the east Houston area. Through connections with existing terminals in Nederland and Houston, the new pipeline system would provide shippers with the added flexibility of moving onto different crude oil distribution pipelines.
See www.texasaccesspipeline.com |
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By
Forbes @
Friday, December 21, 2007 |
10 Parts of the Country Where Values Are Rising
The soft real estate market hasn't reached every city and region of the country, says a report by Forbes magazine. There are many areas where the job market is robust, apartment vacancy rates are low, and property values are rising.
The fastest growing markets are those with above-average job growth, Forbes says.
Warm weather is a factor as well. Americans are increasingly giving quality-of-life factors high priority in their decisions about where to live, and warm weather is a big plus.
Here are the top 10 cities where home prices are bucking the downward trend, the median home price and how much prices have risen in the last year.
* Salt Lake City, Utah; $233,100; 21.9 percent
* Binghamton, N.Y.; $111,200; 19.8 percent
* Salem, Ore.; $227,900; 16.7 percent
* Farmington, N.M.; $201,900; 14.0 percent
* Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, Pa.-N.J.; $274,500; 12.8 percent
* Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas; $127,700; 11.8 percent
* Reading, Pa.; $157,800; 11.2 percent
* Glens Falls, N.Y.; $175,700; 10.7 percent
* Spokane, Wash.; $197,700; 10.4 percent
* Cumberland, Md.-W.Va.; $109,300; 9.3 percent
Source: Forbes Magazine |
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By
Mike Stuart @
Sunday, January 06, 2008 |
The Texas Golden Triangle area (Beaumont Port Arthur Bolivar Peninsula) has struck oil again: with refinery capacity to be doubled, new energy plants and foreign investments - totaling over 20 billion dollars – you now know where the people will going!
And, Texas already has one of the country's fastest growing populations.
Thus have the insight of knowing the one area of Texas with a soon to be population explosion - the Northeast Texas Coast.
My advice then, is to listen to these great men:
"What a man has to do to become rich in America is find out where people are going, get there first, and buy land." - Douglas MacArthur
"Every person who invests in well-selected real estate in a growing section of a prosperous community adopts the surest and safest method of becoming financially independent. For real estate is the basis of wealth." - Theodore Roosevelt |
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By
Gov. Rick Perry @
Thursday, January 31, 2008 |
Gov. Rick Perry identified Petroleum Refining and Chemical Products as one of six industry clusters in is long-term, strategic job creation plan announced in 2004. Each cluster was selected because of its powerful potential for future economic growth.
The Petroleum Refining and Chemical Products cluster is responsible for more than $82 billion in gross state product, almost 870,000 total jobs, and $3.6 billion in annual state revenues. Major employers include Exxon Mobil, El Paso Corp., CITGO, Conoco Phillips Refinery, Shell Oil, and Valero. Petroleum Refining Across the state, crude oil and natural gas are produced in 218 of 254 counties. About 250,000 Texans are employed in oil and gas exploration, production, refining, and related industries.
Texas’ oil and gas industry contributes about $63 billion annually to the state’s economy. Texas is the No. 1 producer of oil and gas, refined products, and chemicals in the United States, and its marketed production of natural gas represents one-third of total U.S. supply. As an oil and gas producer, the state of Texas also is a global leader, contributing approximately 5.3 percent of worldwide refinery capacity. Texas is home to 26 operating refineries that produce an average of 4.3 million barrels of petroleum products per day. Natural gas production in the state exceeds 5 trillion cubic feet a year. Texas’ Gulf Coast refineries account for 86.7 percent of the state’s oil and gas capacity. Texas’ refinery business is working hard to reduce refinery emissions and to produce a variety of differing grades of lower-emitting fuels. Over the past decade, as much as 50 percent of the refinery industry’s overall capital investment costs is spent to meet federal environmental mandates.
Texas is the nation’s largest chemicals producer, manufacturing 14 percent of the nation’s value of chemical output. The Gulf Coast complex of chemical plants and refineries is the largest petrochemical complex in the world, home to more than 200 chemical plants. At least 124 of Texas’ 254 counties have some amount of chemical manufactured output. |
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By
Southeast Texas chamber of commerce @
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 |
Southeast Texas chamber of commerce executives told an industrial group Tuesday they are striving to attract new workers to the region.
It's an issue central to the industrial expansion that will result in an outside investment of about $12.8 billion in Port Arthur and Beaumont that also affects Hardin and Orange counties.
Added to that figure is another estimated $1 billion in school bond issues approved by voters in various districts.
Everyone needs to join in the effort to bring in an expected 15,000 workers needed for the projects, said Jim Rich, president of the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce.
Rich, and his Port Arthur and Orange counterparts, outlined their efforts to members of the Golden Triangle Business Roundtable's monthly meeting in Port Neches.
"We have a tremendous need to attract people here," Rich, addressing members of the Golden Triangle Business Roundtable, said.
"We all have to be salesmen for this area. We need to all be out there trying to recruit people because the communities that can attract talent are the communities that are going to be successful," he said.
Rich, along with Sabrina Gray and Mary Ann Reid, presidents of the Orange and Port Arthur chambers of commerce respectively, also noted an accompanying commercial and residential construction in their communities.
Although local workers will be able to fill many of the job openings additional laborers need to be attracted to the region, Rich said.
Toward that end each of the three chambers is engaged in a marketing effort for their communities, although Orange is the only city to have announced a new slogan.
Gray said community leaders plan to market the city as a place with "small town charm and world class culture."
Gray said they hope to raise awareness of the Stark Museum of Art, the Lutcher Theater for the Performing Arts and Shangri La, a series of botanical gardens set to reopen in March.
"The rebuilding of Mr. (H.J. Lutcher) Stark's gardens has brought an excitement to Orange we haven't seen in many, many years," she said.
The consulting firm, North Star Destinations Strategies of Nashville, Tenn., is working on a branding campaign for Beaumont.
A presentation on the plan for Beaumont will be made Tuesday at City Council.
While city leaders from each community are working to raise their city's profile they have also worked well as a team, Rich said, particularly when attempting to acquire relief funds following Hurricane Rita.
He stressed the need to continue to work together and indicated a delegation will travel to Lake Charles, La., to visit with officials there about joining in a cooperative effort to address common issues such as a shortage of skilled labor. |
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