Odessa Petrochemical Complex

El Paso Natural Gas, a partner in the complex's supply plant, grew on gas the oil fields once burned. After World War II, with steel pipe available again, it began serving California, starting in November 1947. Much of its supply was casinghead gas, a by-product of oil production long flared as waste, and the Railroad Commission hailed its treating plants as a major conservation step. A 1951 pact with Pacific Gas and Electric gave it all of the California market, supplied from the San Juan Basin, and in 1952 it became the first to use large gas-turbine compressors.

What the plaque says

Odessa Petrochemical Complex In the 1950s, the Odessa Petrochemical Complex was the largest of its kind in the world. The first business to occupy the future complex was the Odessa Natural Gasoline Company founded in 1946 by four west Texas businessmen: W.D. Noel, E.G. Rodman, M.H. McWhirter and J.B Tubb. The aim of these oilmen was to find profitable and efficient applications for the vast quantities of natural gas wasted during the oil refinery process. Natural gas proved useful for the production of certain petrochemicals like butadine and styrene, key ingredients for synthetic rubber. The Odessa Chamber of Commerce proved eager to expand its economy, and looked to Noel and Rodman to boost prospects of the town. The chamber sanctioned the construction of a butadiene plant in 1956, followed by a Dynagen/General Tire plant in 1957 and a styrene plant in 1958. The El Paso Products Company, a joint venture between the West Texas Gathering Company and El Paso Natural Gas, built a facility and supplied the butadine and styrene plants with natural gas. This plant ultimately grew to be an anchor for the complex. Additional companies and plants joined the complex including Shell Oil, Rexene, American Cryogenics, South West Cryogenics and Beaunit Corporation. These companies produced petrochemical products used in a diverse array of residential and industrial contexts. The Odessa Petrochemical Complex fostered the growth of the American petroleum industry which, in turn, facilitated the subsequent expansion of Odessa. (2015)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• White-Pool House — 0.7 mi
  Odessa's oldest standing building, an 1887 brick house of a family the Texas and Pacific drew west, later cut into apartments for the oil boom and now a free house museum.
• Odessa Meteor Crater — 9.1 mi
  A shallow bowl in the ranchland southwest of Odessa where a shower of iron meteorites struck in the late Ice Age, with a trail down into it and a small museum on the rim.
• Midland Army Air Field Museum — 11 mi
  A hangar museum at Midland's airport, run by Commemorative Air Force volunteers, telling how a 1927 grass field became the bombardier college that graduated 6,627 officers in World War II.
• Permian Basin Petroleum Museum — 19 mi
  Midland's museum of the oil basin it sits on, from a restored diorama of the Permian reef to a 40-acre yard of drilling rigs and Jim Hall's Chaparral race cars.

More markers nearby

• Earl George Rodman, Sr. and William Douglas Noel — steps away
• First National Bank of Odessa — steps away
• The Jackrabbit — 0.2 mi
• Odessa — 0.2 mi