TOTAL SA, parent company of Total Jamaica, on Tuesday reaffirmed its commitment to growth in the Americas by opening a US$100-m hydro de-aromatisation facility in Bayport, Houston, Texas, to produce high-purity special fluids.

Total’s Bayport opening comes just weeks after the opening of a multimillion- dollar innovation centre in Grand Rapids, Michigan, by Total’s automotive and aerospace company Hutchinson.

The French multi-national, one of six ‘Supermajor’ oil companies in the world, operates 56 service stations in Jamaica following the acquisition of Esso Jamaica’s assets in 2008.

Late January, Total bolstered its presence in the Caribbean to 600 service stations by acquiring a majority stake, 70 per cent, in the Dominican Republic’s leading fuel retailer, Putney Capital Management, which operates 130 service stations under the Shell brand.

Total’s new Bayport hydro de-aromatisation facility will deliver clean fluids and solvents for use in consumer products, life sciences, agriculture, energy production, and industrial applications.

The plant is the second of its kind in the world, modelled after a similar facility in France. It will produce a range of 40 different high-purity special fluids for customer use across a wide spectrum of industry, including pharmaceuticals, crop protection, water treatment, printing inks, paints and coatings and cosmetics.

Similar to Total’s Dominican Republic acquisition, which he had described as “a continuation of its development in the Caribbean retail market where it is now one of the regional leaders,” Philippe Boisseau, a member of Total’s executive committee and president of marketing and services, explained, “Our new Bayport operation illustrates Total’s commitment to our business in the United States.”

With an annual production capacity of 250 kilo tonnes and ideally situated to supply the biggest markets in the world, the Bayport facility will also produce synthetic biodegradable fluids for on- and off-shore drilling in keeping with Total’s commitment to the use of clean drilling fluids for exploration and production operations.

The Bayport HDA plant utilises a catalytic reaction process that, when combined with high pressure and distillation, enables the production of very specific high-purity fluids; odorless, coluorless, stable and with ultra-low aromatic contents. These high-purity fluids are customised to meet the needs of a wide variety of industrial applications.