HAWKINS, TX — The Hawkins Oil Field in East Texas has produced millions of barrels of oil for nearly seven decades, but that doesn't mean that field is done.

Today, EXXONMOBIL launched their new facility that will be producing more oil and natural gas for years to come.

The Hawkins Field is known as one of the largest oil fields in Texas.

I attended the inauguration, where EXXONMOBIL showed the history of the field from the 1940s and where it's going in the future.

EXXONMOBIL reinforced their goal of keeping all their employees and visitors safe, and then provided heat-retarded protective gear.

The Senior Superintendent of East Texas Oil, Randy Morrison, said, "We're very excited to be setting it up, it's something that is very modern technology, very cutting edge technology."

Over the past seventy years the Hawkins Oil Field has produced more than 800-million barrels of oil

The Operations Superintendent for Central US Production Operations, Drew Bishop, said, "This plant, the work we've done at this field is going to extend the life of the asset for about 25 years, so we've been here for a long time and were going to be here for a lot longer."

EXXONMOBIL tells KETK that this new facility is expected to help recover an amount of oil equal to the annual energy needed to meet more than one-million Texas households.

This is the only plant of its kind in Texas due to its unique production process.

The gas is compressed, cleaned, separated, and then sold and used.

The field recovers and re-injects Nitrogen and other gases from the field's natural gas production.

Morrison said, "There's sort of a magic inside of it that it does something very few other
plants do in that it liquefies Methane."

EXXONMOBIL's facility will enable them to produce more oil and natural gas.

We asked Morrison how this new facility will impact the community and he said, "I tell you the last year we paid about eleven and a half million dollars in property taxes and service taxes, just for this operation, now it'll be something more than that for this plant i don't know what the property tax value is but it will increase the property tax value."

Morrison tells KETK that his new facility employees nearly 130 employees and also explained how there are more than 3,000 uses, besides fuel for petroleum.

After the tour, there was a luncheon held in Big Sandy where the mayor of Hawkins, the fire department, and others in the community attended to learn more about the new facility and then go on a tour of their own.