1946
Entrepreneur Lloyd Webre Sr. founds Texas Brine Corporation with his father-in-law Robert E. Payne Jr. and uncle-in-law M.G. Wogan by incorporation with the Texas Secretary of State. The company acquires its first property, almost 16 acres on the Pierce Junction Salt Dome in Harris County. The company first delivers brine to customers by truck.
1950
Champion Paper and Fibre Company signs an agreement for Texas Brine to supply brine from Pierce Junction by pipeline to the customer’s pulp and paper mill in Pasadena, Texas.
1953
In response to customer inquiries, Texas Brine leases salt dome caverns to Ellis Transport Corporation for underground storage of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) at Pierce Junction. Subsequently, six more caverns were permitted for storage.
1957
Texas Brine secures salt leases at Spindletop Salt Dome in Beaumont, Texas, leading to brine supply opportunities with Jefferson Chemical Company, Texas-U.S. Chemical Company, and Goodrich-Gulf Chemicals, Inc.
1964
Champion Papers Inc. contracts for Texas Brine to build additional pipelines and facilities to store brine at Champion Papers’ plant adjacent to the Houston Ship Channel.
1965
Texas Brine expands its operations to Louisiana by leasing a portion of Napoleonville Salt Dome in Grand Bayou, La. This will lead to a brine supply agreement with Georgia-Pacific Corporation in 1972.
1965
Texas Brine is instrumental in helping to form the Solution Mining Research Institute (SMRI) to promote research and education for the international brine production and storage industry.1966
Texas Brine grows its Pierce Junction operational footprint with additional agreements with other landowners, including Champion Papers, between 1966 and 1974.
1966
Shell Chemical Company contracts for brine from Pierce Junction for chlorine and caustic soda production at its Deer Park, Texas, facility.
1967
Texas Brine expands to South Texas with land leases of Markham Salt Dome property in Matagorda County, Texas. New brine customers include Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) in 1967 and E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Company in 1974. Texas Brine further expands its holdings around Markham Salt Dome with acquisitions of 160 salt mineral acres in 1988 and 297 surface acres in 1992.
1970
Texas Brine moves into New York State by signing an agreement with Hooker Chemical Corporation to operate its Dale Brine Field and supply brine to its plant in Niagara Falls. Texas Brine’s New York operations expand in 1985 with an agreement to supply brine to the Niachlor plant in Niagara Falls. This is the only Texas Brine plant built to recycle depleted brine back at the brine field for re-saturation to conserve water using two 60-mile-long pipelines.
1973
Texas Brine develops the first underground storage cavern at Markham Salt Dome for Seadrift Pipeline Corporation. Underground storage expands with Corpus Christi Petrochemical Company in 1977, Coastline Gas Storage Company in 1991, and Coastal States Crude Gathering Company in 1992.
1975
Texas Brine acquires United Brine Pipeline Corporation, a common carrier pipeline company. Today, it is a separate entity that operates three lines. Two deliver brine from Markham Salt Dome to Occidental Chemical Corporation’s plant at Ingleside, Texas, and Formosa Plastics Corporation’s plant at Point Comfort, Texas. The third line delivers brine from Barbers Hill Salt Dome to the Pure Salt evaporation facility in Baytown, TX.
1979
Texas Brine further expands into Louisiana with a lease for Chacahoula Salt Dome in Lafourche Parish. This opens the opportunity to supply brine to Convent Chemical Corporation’s plant in St. James Parish.
1980
Arnie Webre succeeds Lloyd Webre as president of Texas Brine.
1981
Beginning in 1981 and through the present, the Pierce Junction underground storage business grows significantly. New storage leases were signed with Coastal States Crude Gathering Company in 1981, Texas Petrochemicals LP in 2001, and CenterPoint Energy Intrastate Pipelines, LLC, in 2005.
1989
Texas Brine expands its Markham Salt Dome operations to provide brine to Formosa Plastics Corporation’s Point Comfort, Texas, plant. In 2001, Formosa Hydrocarbons Company contracts with Texas Brine to store natural gas liquids.
1994
Texas Brine expands its assets at Pierce Junction with acquisitions from Enterprise Products Company, including 54 acres, salt and underground storage leases, storage wells, brine pits, a water well, pipelines and other infrastructure.
1997
Leasing Barbers Hill Salt Dome in Mont Belvieu, Texas, opens an opportunity to provide brine for Bayer Corporation’s new chlor-alkali plant in Baytown. The construction project includes the first proprietary brine treatment facility in Mont Belvieu and first salt evaporator on Bayer’s property. Today, Pure Salt Baytown, LLC, owns and operates the assets and sells a portion of the salt to United Salt Baytown, LLC’s dry salt processing and packaging plant.
1999
Ted Grabowski succeeds long-time president Arnie Webre.
2001
Texas Brine creates wholly owned subsidiary United Brine Services Company, LLC (UBS) to provide technical, construction, and field support to Texas Brine and its customers. Today, UBS has dozens of employees providing support in various fields, including engineering, project management, geology, well drilling and maintenance, cavern development, and Instrumentation and Electrical services.
2003
After executing a lease for White Castle Salt Dome, Texas Brine produces and transports treated brine to Shintech Inc.’s new chemical plant in Plaquemine, La., beginning in 2008. Through two expansions, Texas Brine will triple its supply capacity to Shintech by 2022.
2007
Texas Brine Saltville, LLC, a subsidiary of Texas Brine, expands operations to Virginia by acquiring 206 acres of land and facilities to develop caverns and produce brine for United Salt Corporation’s evaporator in Saltville, Va.
2007
Further cementing Markham Salt Dome as a major storage hub, Tres Palacios Gas Storage, LLC, leases caverns to develop its natural gas storage facility with approximately 35 billion cubic feet of storage capacity.
2012
A sinkhole results from a collapsed underground salt dome cavern operated by Texas Brine and owned by Occidental Chemical Corporation in northern Assumption Parish, La. Texas Brine works with residents and other stakeholders to address the impacts.
2012
Further expanding the Pierce Junction storage hub, Underground Storage, LLC, a subsidiary of Texas Brine, enters into its first crude oil storage development agreement with Fairway Energy Partners, LLC. The facility boasts 7.2 million barrels of storage capacity for crude oil.
2015
Underground Services Markham, LLC (USM), a Texas Brine subsidiary, leases a cavern to Ingleside Ethylene, LLC, for ethylene storage at Markham Salt Dome. The cavern was placed in service in 2016 and is connected to Occidental Chemical Corporation’s Ingleside, Texas, facility.
2017
USM further expands salt reserves in South Texas by leasing Hawkinsville Salt Dome in Matagorda County.
2018
Markham Salt Dome enters a major underground storage development period under an agreement with Easton Energy Midstream Services, LLC.
2019
Texas Brine buys 118 acres of salt-bearing property over North Dayton Salt Dome in Liberty County, Texas. By 2021, it has acquired 62 more acres of salt-bearing property and another 784 surface acres.
2020
USM completes a 3D seismic survey covering approximately 88 square miles to develop a salt sediment structure map of Markham Salt Dome.
2021
TBC Sales and Distribution, LLC, a subsidiary of Texas Brine, installs three additional truck racks, bringing the total to 13 truck facilities. The company also adds its first barge-loading location on the Mississippi River.
2021
Mitsubishi Power Americas, Inc., and Texas Brine sign a memorandum of understanding to develop large-scale, long-duration hydrogen storage solutions to support decarbonization efforts across the United States. Long-duration hydrogen storage is a key enabling technology for transitioning to a net-zero carbon energy future.
