Don't expect any summer vacations this year at the OxyMar chemical plant in Ingleside.
In the hot months of June and July, OxyMar will be going on line with an expansion that will make the plant one of the largest single producers of vinyl chloride monomer in the world.
At $150 million to build, it is the largest industrial expansion scheduled for completion in 1997 in the Coastal Bend.
"In an engineer's career, you don't get many opportunities to start up something this large," said Dean Hulsey, production manager for the vinyl chloride monomer operations at Ingleside and the person in charge of the expansion.
Situated on the northern tip of Corpus Christi Bay alongside the La Quinta Channel, Occidental Chemical Corp. operates about $1 billion worth of infrastructure that produces chemicals that go into products as diverse as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe, detergents and textiles.
The OxyMar plant within the OxyChem-Ingleside complex is a 50-50 joint venture between Occidental Chemical and Marubeni Corp. of Tokyo. Operated by OxyChem, the OxyMar venture uses chlorine produced at the OxyChem complex and ethylene from the OxyChem-Corpus Christi plant to make vinyl chloride monomer for PVC resins.
The worldwide demand for vinyl chloride monomer, referred to in the industry as VCM, has grown by about 5 percent to 6 percent a year, said Vic Pisani, plant manager for the OxyChem-Ingleside complex.
"The PVC plastics is a growing business around the world, particularly in developing countries," Pisani said. "As all these cities build their water lines, sewer lines, houses, they need PVC plastics."
With the expansion, the Ingleside facility will be capable of producing 2.1 billion pounds of VCM annually -- the equivalent of about 12,000 rail cars -- about 12 percent of total U.S. capacity.
After 1 1/2 years of engineering and construction, the expansion is nearing completion.
In the next few months, operating technicians and other staff will begin learning their way around and testing equipment at the plant, flushing the pipes with water, for example, to clean and check for leaks, Hulsey said. When that is complete, the equipment will be dried and charged with feedstocks for practice runs.
About 40 miles of pipe -- enough to stretch from Corpus Christi to Refugio -- was installed on 23 acres of the expansion site. The largest single structures are the nine distillation towers -- the tallest one is about 120 feet -- and the three new storage spheres that will handle surge capacity.
The spheres, with diameters of 72 feet, are pressure-rated and insulated to keep the VCM in a liquid state. In ambient conditions, VCM is a gas.
The expansion is attached to the existing plant through pipe racks that also carry the liquid to storage and to shipping areas. About 15 days of inventory are kept on plant grounds, Pisani said.
Last year, OxyChem loaded 188 vessels with VCM and other products. Pisani said that while the OxyMar expansion will not warrant a second dock, another significant plant expansion would require more shipping area.
About half of OxyChem's 575-acre site is being utilized. "When this expansion was planned, a lot of thought was given to how to expand again," Pisani said. "I think we're well-positioned to have another expansion when the market warrants it."
The OxyMar facility on the Ingleside complex is the company's newest plant, built in 1990.
Much of the expansion was modeled after the original OxyMar facility, utilizing such energy-efficient designs as cross-heat exchangers that capture byproduct heat for re-use, Pisani said.
"This kind of business is characterized as operating as a large commodity business on very small margins," Pisani said. "Efficiency determines how you survive."
A large factor in operating a chemical plant that handles potentially dangerous materials are employee safety and environmental stewardship.
Pisani said he is proud of the plant's employee safety record, noting that the OxyChem complex has gone 35 months without a spill or environmental permit exceedance.
In 1994 and 1995, the OxyChem complex won the company's environmental award that recognizes employee safety and environmental performance, competing internally with 50 other OxyChem facilities worldwide, Pisani said. It is a finalist for the 1996 award.
Any employee in the plant has authority to shut down a unit if they suspect a risk, Pisani said. The plant also has an automated shutdown system when equipment detects any problems.
A shutdown of the plant can be costly because it is designed to operate 24-hours a day. For example, a half-day shutdown of the OxyMar unit could cost production of about 3 million pounds of VCM, Hulsey said. At current market prices, that equates to $630,000.
OxyChem, like many of the petrochemical plants in the community, has a citizens advisory committee which meets regularly. It offers plant tours, and each year organizes a large tour for elected officials and other leaders who come to the plant to view operations and ask questions.
Bill Schmidt, an Ingleside resident on the advisory committee and a past president of the Coastal Bend Audubon Society, said he thinks chemical plants have come a long way in protecting the environment.
"People need to divorce themselves from the idea that industries are bad for the environment, and I am an environmentalist," said Schmidt, who serves as education chairman and senior trustee of the North Bay Sanctuary. "They need to realize that it is strictly marvelous to what extent these chemical plants have gone in reducing not only emissions, but also reducing their risks."
The OxyChem complex is San Patricio County's third largest private employer and its largest single taxpayer. About 410 people are employed at OxyChem (including OxyMar) with a combined payroll of about $19.5 million. The expansion will add 34 jobs. (The top hourly rate for an operating technician is $21.50.)
Brown and Root Inc. was the contractor on the expansion. At its peak, the construction required as many as 1,030 contractors at the plant at one time, Pisani said.
Hulsey said he looked forward to the days when the expansion will come on line.
"This is what we go to school and work all these years to do," Hulsey said of the expansion. "When you're in my line of work, this is what you strive for. I'm looking forward to the next one and hoping there will be one."