Shell Deer Park, Texas

Shell Deer Park is one of the largest petrochemical sites in the nation, covering 1,500 acres, combining a major refinery and a major chemical plant, both owned by the oil company Royal Dutch Shell. The refinery has the capacity of processing 340,000 barrels of crude per day, making it one of the largest refineries in the nation. It is operated in partnership with Pemex, the federal Mexican oil company, as it processes a lot of oil from that country. Established in 1929, the refinery refines sour crude from Africa and Venezuela as well. The chemical plant was established in the 1940s and makes base materials for the chemical and plastics industry, including aromatics such as benzene, and xylene; olefins such as ethylene, propelyne, butylene; phenols; and solvents. Most of the products are moved to other plants by pipeline, though the dock at Deer Park, on the Houston Ship Channel, handles enough material to rank it the 25th largest port in the nation.