This 1940s footage captures the construction of the Neches Butane Products Company chemical plant in Port Neches. In the film, workers use derricks to raise many of the 48 butadiene towers located at the facility. Five oil companies—Gulf Oil Corporation, Pure Oil Company, Atlantic Refining Company, Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, and the Texas Company—organized the Neches Butane Products Company in 1942 to produce butadiene, a component derived from petroleum found in synthetic rubber. The chemical plant, the world’s largest at the time, was constructed between 1942 and 1944. The company later became Texaco Chemical.
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