A very small part of the new $6 billion expansion at the ChevronPhillips refinery. (a drive-by shot)

More than 80 percent complete, it is expected to be up and running in about a year.  The effort involves building a massive ethane cracker
on a plot the size of 44 football fields. The cracker takes a component of natural gas to churn out 1.5 million metric tons a year of ethylene, the most common building block of plastics.
The Chevron Phillips cracker includes eight giant furnaces that essentially heat up the ethane and cook it into ethylene.
The project has created 10,000 temporary construction jobs — Baytown and Old Ocean combined — and 400 new permanent positions once it’s completed.