Celebrating 90 years of history

ExxonMobil Baytown Area 90th Anniversary Logo

A 90-year legacy
In July 1918, Humble Oil and Refining Company made the decision to undertake the building of a refinery on a tract of 2,200 acres located 30 miles from Houston on the ship channel just above Galveston Bay.  Given the location, the new refinery would later be named Baytown.  On April 16, 1919, ground was broken at the property and construction began, and on May 11, 1920, the first oil was pumped into a still at the Humble Oil & Refining Company. 

 

Ninety years later, that same facility, which was originally intended to have a crude capacity of only 2,500 barrels of oil a day, has evolved into the one of the most technologically advanced petroleum and petrochemical complexes in the world.  The Baytown Complex's numbers truly speak for themselves with:

  • approximately 2,200 employees and 1,200 contract personnel on-site,
  • nearly 3,500 acres, or five square miles of property,
  • a crude oil capacity of 584,000 barrels per day and
  • the annual production of more than 7.2 billion pounds of petrochemical products.

Now known as the ExxonMobil Baytown Complex (Complex), it is the largest integrated petroleum and petrochemical complex in the United States.  In addition, the area surrounding the Complex – once comprised of low-lying rice fields and dense swampland and woods – has emerged as one of the Houston area’s most burgeoning communities: Baytown. 

Our people and a lasting partnership
Together, both Baytown and the Complex have grown through the years – helping one another and contributing to each other’s successes.  In fact, one could say that neither would even exist today without the other’s constant support and help.  And while both the Complex and the community look much different today than they did at their founding, some things have remained constant through the years; namely, the people.

As we look back on 90 years of innovations, achievements and serving as an industry leader, we see that for every technical breakthrough achieved, every new energy-saving process developed, every new unit built, every dollar contributed to improving the community, every safety milestone reached, and every year that the Complex has operated successfully in the Baytown area – none of it would have been possible without the courage, creativity, charity and character of our most valuable resource: the people. 

And no matter how many technologies and automated processes are developed in the coming years, nothing will ever replace the ingenuity, spirit and commitment of those men and women – past, present and future – who work at the Complex.  

Sure, faces come and go.  But the traits that were exemplified by the original engineers and laborers who built the refinery – courage, creativity, charity and character – remain prevalent today.  The people have remained our most valuable asset, and it is the people who have made the Complex the leader in our industry.