Employees say safety issues at gas plant endanger the community

LONGVIEW- The Longview Gas Plant, with over 600 miles of pipeline just outside of city limits, is believed to be unsafe by some of its employees.

The Longview Gas plant plays an important role in processing low quality gas produced across the region by separating the mixture into higher value products, like butane, hexane, and condensate. They are the only plant in East Texas to do so, and without them, many oil horses would grind to a halt. Due to the plant’s economic importance, and possible dangers presented by the conversion process, the Department of Homeland Security and the Texas Railroad Commission – which regulate the state’s oil and gas industry- consider the plant critical to Texas energy infrastructure.

In 2020, the plant was acquired by the Houston-based company, J. Global Energy Midstream. According to a report by The Tyler Morning Telegraph, Longview Gas Plant employees say that a chaotic working environment and cavalier attitude toward safety by the facility’s Brazilian ownership are endangering East Texans. This assertions has been illustrated by a worker death, two fires, and an oil spill, among other incidents.

In October 2023 two contract welders, Arturo Jimenez Jr. and Christopher Allen, were sent to JGE’s Danville compressor station outside of Kilgore. Though this portion of the facility was no longer operational, it operated like a vacuum to help suction gas through portions of the company’s pipeline work. The two welders were not aware that the ground beneath them was saturated with petroleum products, and their welding equipment sparked flammable vapors still lingering inside the building. Allen was found by first responders with minor burns, but Jimenez sustained far more serious injuries. Allen dragged his co-worker out of the flames, and first responders transferred him to Christus Good Shepherd Medical center with severe burns to 95 percent of his body, and later died from his injuries.

After a review by federal investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the incident was said to be a preventable accident that would not have occurred if JGE had maintained a safe job site. OSHA issued over $43,000 in fines to JGE Midstream for three “serious” violations related to workplace safety following the incident.

Safety issues within the working areas of the plant seem to be no better. One former JGE employee recalled an incident in November of 2024, where a poorly welded butanizer had been imported from Brazil. The experts at the plant concluded that the welds would not sustain the pressure, and had to be redone or run the risk of a vapor cloud explosion. This scare was preceded by a separate fire at the JGE property in June, this time at the plant itself. The White Oak Volunteer Fire Department responded to a compressor that had been set ablaze. No fatalities occurred, and the fire was contained. A former employee responded, saying that that was a small miracle.

” All the safety monitors, like gas monitors and vibration monitors, have been bypassed ever since JGE owned the plant, so it wouldn’t be shut down,” the former employee said. He recalled that one worker was chased by a fireball, ” and if he hadn’t been 20-something… and able to run like a sprinter he would have died.”

“Going to work at the Longview Gas Plant was like being in ‘Alice in Wonderland’. You wake up every day and it’s like a whole different world, because nothing makes sense… JGE needs to be stopped.” said colleen Wright, a former JGE administrative assistant.

“I feel like it[‘s a danger to not only us, but if something really bad happens to that place, we can lose a lot of the area from the amount of gas stuff we have in there,” one employee commented in 2024.

“…to me, this is an unusual case, because JGE seems flagrant about their disregard of the rules,” Said Shawn Latchford, an attorney with Buster, PLLC who is representing former American JGE employees in a discrimination suit against the company.

JGE and its many subsidiaries are controlled by Ricardo Magro, a business man whom Brazilian authorities have dubbed as one of that nation’s largest tax evaders. JGE officials have given no response to any attempts by the Tyler Morning Telegraph to contact them for comment.