PENWELL, Texas — The new Nacero facility that will be built in West Texas is a big deal for the people and economy in the area, and although this construction hasn't started just yet, it's on the way.
"They announced that Penwell-Odessa was going to be the location for their first facility, the process to manufacture gasoline from natural gas," said Wesley Burnett, Project Integration Director for Nacero Inc, "To make about $100 million barrels of gasoline a day."
The lower carbon gasoline manufacturing facility will be the first of its kind.
"It'll be a greener gasoline, lower Carborn, zero Sulphur," said Burnett.
The gasoline is made from natural gas, from feed lots, flares or landfill natural gas that is broken down that can go straight into your car.
The entire construction of Naceros first facility will cost around $6.5 to $7 billion dollars to build.
"Were hoping that there will be about 450 permanent jobs once the plant opens up. Construction will take seven years probably so 2,000 to 3,000 construction workers probably," said Burnett.
The new facility will help boost the economy and bring something new to the oil and gas industry.
"The oil and gas industry is not going away, it's going to be here and we just want to be that part of the economy that does it cleaner," said Burnett.
The facility will be built on about 2600 acres of land.
"It's going to be a game changer for Odessa obviously but also for Texas and the country we feel," Burnett said. "We've been saying all along its the perfect site for this project, just the location and all the physical attributes for the site"
The Texas Economic Development Council awarded the project the Community Economic Development Award. The project was up against other projects in cities like Amarillo and Abilene.
Burnett was also named the 2022 Chair of the Board of Directors for the Texas Economic Development Council on October 15.
The engineering and design for this is close to being finished and Burnett believes work will get started in Penwell within the first quarter of 2022.
The Texas on Environmental Quality issued an Air Quality Permit at the end of November authorizing construction and manufacturing of the plant.
“This is a major step forward in our effort to become the climate solution for millions of everyday drivers across Texas and the United States,” said Jay McKenna, Nacero’s President and CEO in a press release. “This is the first of a series of facilities that will bring affordable lower lifecycle carbon footprint Nacero BlueTM gasoline and net-zero lifecycle carbon footprint Nacero GreenTM gasoline to market.”