Landscape of Industry

LAFAYETTE, LA. The stretch of gulf coast between Galveston and central Louisiana is unexpectedly industrial, mostly revolving around fossil fuels. The quantity of refining, storing, drilling and pumping infrastructure is eye-opening to someone who has never been here before. From massive refineries to single oil derricks to small natural gas wells surrounded by trees beside a marsh, the industry is everywhere.

The gulf coast has 54 active refineries that process half (well, 49.8%) of the crude oil in the US. That’s 8,391,842 barrels per day, or approximately 705 olympic-sized swimming pools full. Every day. Plus there is a substantial amount of other “downstream” processing done as well – coking, cracking, vacuum distillation, catalytic hydrotreating and so on.

Together, Texas and Louisiana have 46 of the gulf coast’s refineries, which is over a third of all the refineries in the United States. These large complexes are often in industrial neighborhoods or undeveloped areas, but I saw several that were next door to suburban communities and elementary schools.

The following photos show a small piece of the industrial landscape that I have crossed over the last several hundred miles.

Texas City, Texas

Bicycling down refinery row

Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig Museum

Chevron Property, Brazoria County, Texas

Chevron Property Signs, Brazoria County, Texas

Bp Amoco Chemical Company, Chocolate Bayou Plant

Shed and Storage Tank, Chocolate Bayou Plant

Swingset, Taft Elementary School, Port Arthur, Texas

Taft Elementary School and Total Petrochemicals, Inc. 

Refinery, Port Arthur, Texas

Liquid Natural Gas tanks, Sabine Pass 

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