According to Bayport Polymers (Baystar) President Diane Chamberlain, the company uses the "Power of Partnership" to provide safe, responsible, sustainable and innovative products to meet the growing demands of customers.
Diane Chamberlain, president of Bayport Polymers (Baystar), speaks during the 2019 groundbreaking ceremony for the new 625,000-tonper-year Borstar® polyethylene unit in Pasadena, Texas. According to Chamberlain, start-up for the Bay 3 Unit is expected in mid-2022.
Baystar was created as a joint venture in 2018 between three established petrochemical industry leaders: TotalEnergies Petrochemicals & Refining USA Inc., Borealis and NOVA Chemicals. In 2019, Borealis acquired NOVA Chemicals shares, making Baystar a partnership between TotalEnergies and Borealis.
Chamberlain recently gave an update on Baystar's two large capital projects in Texas. In February 2019, the company broke ground at the Baystar facility in Pasadena, Texas, on a 625,000-ton-per-year polyethylene unit.
"The new Bay 3 Unit will use Borstar® technology and more than double the site's polyethylene capacity," Chamberlain said. "As of August 2021, the unit had approximately 7 million man-hours logged, and start-up is expected in mid-2022."
Baystar is also building a 1-million-tonper- year steam cracker in Port Arthur, Texas. The new cracker will process ethane, which is abundantly available and competitively priced in the U.S., and will supply feedstock for Baystar's existing 400,000-ton-per-year polyethylene units and the new Borstar polyethylene unit.
"There have been 14 million man-hours performed on that project," Chamberlain said. "The start-up is underway, and it will continue to be operated by TotalEnergies employees. We're proud of the fact that both projects have no lost-time incidents and a small number of recordables."
Chamberlain has more than 27 years of experience in the refining and petrochemical industries. She's worked for Chevron, Chevron Phillips Chemical and Shell and has a strong operational background in ethylene and polyethylene, as well as extensive experience in supply chain, sales, business development, technical marketing and catalyst technologies.
"Our site has been [in Texas] for 40 years, but under many different names," Chamberlain said. "In order to develop our core values, we decided it was very important to honor the legacy of the site. We created the core values of 'caring, trustworthy, focus, innovative and fun.' These core values have been the golden thread that we carry through everything. They guide Baystar's success, encourage our employees to achieve their potential and still allow us to treat each other like family."
According to Chamberlain, decision making within a joint venture always requires "extensive alignment."
"In our particular case, instead of starting a joint venture with a small number of assets, learning how to work together, setting up processes, earning the right to grow and then investing lots of money, we were able to do all of that at once," she explained. "Instead of starting with the 100-piece puzzle, we went straight to the 10,000-piece puzzle. We've had to handle all the challenges at the same time."
Baystar leverages this "Power of Partnership" with its parent companies. Chamberlain noted that Baystar started with 99 employees in 2018, and it's now tripled in size.
"We would never be able to run a business and spend $3 billion with only 300 people," Chamberlain said. "We have large numbers of people within Borealis and TotalEnergies that support us, from service agreements to special projects. With all this growth, it's been important to maintain our culture and core family values."
Chamberlain is proud that Baystar has constructed a team with a culture of achieving long-term goals. She continues to help manage Baystar's projects even with challenging external forces like COVID-19. Baystar is a joint venture, but it's still developed its own identity and value propositions.
