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Texas Company Investing $75 Million in Somerset Plant

Somerset Pulaski County Development Foundation

A Houston, Texas-based company is investing $75 million in a new manufacturing plant in  Somerset. Extiel will use a unique technology to convert natural gas into synthetic waxes, oils and solvents. The company will manufacture products that may include ultra-clean synthetic fuels, like motor oil. 

The new plant will create 60 jobs within four years.

Martin Shearer is executive director of the Somerset Pulaski County Development Foundation. He says the company knows there’s an existing market.

“It’s not that the products are not being used in the U.S. All the products of that type being used in the U.S. are being imported. So it would be the first in the U.S. to make the products here," said Shearer. "But there are products coming into the country from those two gigantic plants that are overseas.”

Shearer said the major factors that attracted the company are the region's 168-mile gas distribution pipeline and the new state-of-the-art Somerset Energy Center. The energy center allows extremely efficient control of the natural gas and is a major advantage for industrial clients.

Site work is expected to begin later this year with completion in 2020. 

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