Houston, Texas-based TPC Group, a manufacturer of petrochemicals, responding to a devastating November 27, 2019 explosion and fire in its manufacturing facility, has announced plans to repurpose its Port Neches, Texas facility as a terminal and distribution point for their petrochemical products.
A company spokesperson explaining, “The company does not expect that we will need employees beyond those necessary to operate as a terminal for more than three to five years. The downsizing will impact salaried employees as well as union/hourly employees.”
An estimated 100 employees will be laid off as the facility is repaired and rebuilt over the next three-to-five years. Others will continue with clean-up, maintenance, and transition activities.
The company released the following statement…
“The site is secure and response efforts continue to focus on activities to de-risk the site and minimize impact to environment, while preserving the safety of workers and the community. Response teams remain focused on de-risking the facility and bringing response efforts at TPC Group Port Neches Operations safely to an end.
96 percent of the high purity butadiene has been transferred offsite and more than 50 percent of 1,3 butadiene containing material has been transferred offsite. This will be followed by the transfer of crude C4, raffinate, polyblend and other process materials to further secure the site.
Neighboring industrial plants are now up and operating. TPC Group Port Neches Operations continues to make good progress with the goal of restoring terminal operations capabilities requiring dock, tank farm and pipeline operations, in the first half of the year to expand our ability to serve industry customers throughout facility recovery and restoration.
Staffing Update: TPC Group is evaluating and planning for a rebuild of those parts of the plant that were impacted by the November 2019 incident. It is expected to take a number of years to rebuild. For the foreseeable future, we have an opportunity to operate the site as a terminal to serve current and potential future customer and supplier needs. As operations transition to only a terminal and services organization, a reduced number of employees will be required.
The Company communicated to its employees today it is has made the very difficult yet necessary decision to reduce the workforce at its Port Neches Operations. The Company does not expect that we will need employees beyond those necessary to operate as a terminal for more than three to five years. The downsizing will impact salaried employees as well as union/hourly employees.
This reduction in force is due to the Port Neches incident and will have minimum impact across the organization. These changes will not impact the continuing progress of our response and recovery efforts”.
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