South Hampton’s $30M expansion in Silsbee

SILSBEE, HARDIN COUNTY – South Hampton Resources is underway on a $30 million expansion. Construction of six new towers will increase the plant’s capacity from 7,000 barrels per day to 11,000, or by about 60 percent.

Revenue is expected to climb from $236 million in 2013 to more than $300 million per year.

The first towers have already arrived in Silsbee, and construction should begin by the end of the year, said Nick Carter, president and CEO of South Hampton’s parent company, Trecora.

South Hampton specializes in extracting compounds from natural gas to sell to companies that make polyethylene and do business with ExxonMobil, Total, Chevron Chemical and others.

The company cuts two compounds from natural gas feedstock: pentane and hexane. Both compounds are used by petrochemical companies to manufacture hard plastics, foams and synthetic rubber.

The Silsbee plant controls 75 percent of the U.S. pentane market, as its only true domestic competitor is Phillips 66.

The expansion should be complete by the end of 2015, but Carter does not expect the plant to run at full capacity until 2018 at the earliest.