Leona Chua started her ExxonMobil career in Singapore in 2000 as a process engineer. In February 2026, she arrived in Chambers County, Texas, as plant manager of the Mont Belvieu Plastics Plant—one of the largest polyethylene facilities in the world. Twenty-six years, three continents, and a string of technical and operational roles separate those two first days.
Chua takes over one of the world’s largest polyethylene plants
Chua’s arrival in February 2026 marked her first plant manager role—and she stepped into a big one. The Mont Belvieu Plastics Plant (MBPP) produces approximately 5 billion pounds of polyethylene products per year, making it one of the largest facilities of its kind anywhere. The scale is hard to miss on the 500-acre site: roughly 230 employees and 500 contractors working across multiple production lines in Chambers County.
The size of the operation was matched, in Chua’s view, by the quality of the team she inherited. “It is my first role as a plant manager and in the polymers business,” she says. “I have plenty to learn, and I already see that I have a great team.” She’s also set her sights beyond the plant fence—expressing clear intent to build relationships in Mont Belvieu and the broader Baytown area and to contribute to the site’s long-term success.
A 26-year career spanning Singapore, the U.S., and Australia
Chua graduated from the National University of Singapore with a degree in chemical engineering and joined ExxonMobil Singapore in 2000. Her early years at the Singapore Refinery built a broad technical base across business analysis, crude optimization, and base stocks operations.
Her first move to the U.S. came in 2013, shifting her focus toward strategy, supply chain, and logistics. The pivot from technical to operational work was deliberate—ExxonMobil tends to build its leaders across multiple functions, and Chua was stacking experience from several directions at once. Then in 2018, she became technical manager at ExxonMobil’s Altona Refinery in Australia, where leading a team under a different regulatory environment and workforce culture added yet another dimension.
She returned to Singapore at the end of 2020 and held senior leadership roles at the Singapore Manufacturing Complex before the move to Texas came through. “ExxonMobil has continuously pushed me outside my comfort zone while developing my strengths,” she says. Stretch assignment, new geography, new challenge — that pattern runs consistently through her entire career.
MBPP’s scale, products and role in ExxonMobil’s Gulf Coast operations
MBPP has been running since 1982, starting with a single low-density polyethylene unit. A high-density polyethylene (HDPE) unit followed in 1990. Then in 2017, two new 650,000-ton-per-year high-performance polyethylene lines came online as part of ExxonMobil’s Growing the Gulf initiative, processing ethylene feedstock from the nearby Baytown Olefins Plant and effectively doubling capacity.
Today the plant manufactures ExxonMobil’s Exceed, Enable, and Exceed XP performance polyethylene resins using proprietary technology. Those resins turn up across a wide range of everyday products—food packaging, liquid packaging, hygiene films, agricultural films, heavy-duty sacks, pipe, and blow-molded rigid containers. The product list spans industries and continents.
Finished products leave the site via rail hopper cars or through the Port of Houston for overseas shipment. MBPP sits within ExxonMobil’s broader Baytown Area complex, which also includes a refinery, a chemical plant, an olefins plant, and a global technology center. Together, it’s one of the largest integrated petrochemical hubs on the Gulf Coast.
ExxonMobil’s presence in Chambers County and Chua’s community roles
ExxonMobil has operated in Chambers County for more than four decades. The company contributes more than $1 million annually to local nonprofits in the Baytown and Chambers County area, with employees logging thousands of volunteer hours at schools, nature centers, nursing homes, and food banks. Community programs include Partners in Education, Relay for Life, Be Well Baytown, and the United Way of Greater Baytown Area and Chambers County.
Chua has already stepped into that local presence, joining the boards of directors for the Barbers Hill Education Foundation and the Baytown-West Chambers Economic Development Foundation. Her take on education is direct: “Education opens the door to success.”
Her read on the community itself is warm. “It is a lovely, clearly well-planned area, with many residents who have been there for a long time and are proud of the city,” she says. “A very strong school system, one that produces high-quality talent for our industry.” The polyethylene market is in a growth phase—particularly in developing countries where rising consumer demand is driving need for packaging, medical products, and consumer goods. Performance resins, exactly what MBPP produces, are well-positioned in that environment as customers increasingly want packaging that does more with less material.
In summary: Leona Chua, a 26-year ExxonMobil veteran with experience across Singapore, the U.S., and Australia, took over as plant manager of the Mont Belvieu Plastics Plant in February 2026. The facility produces approximately 5 billion pounds of polyethylene products annually, employs around 230 workers and 500 contractors, and forms a key part of ExxonMobil’s Gulf Coast operations. Chua brings a background spanning process engineering, crude optimization, supply chain, and refinery leadership—and has already taken on board roles in the local Chambers County community.
Kelly is an experienced writer with 15 years of experience exploring the big stories that shape our world, from tech breakthroughs and space exploration to climate, energy, and the fascinating quirks of science. She has a talent for turning complex ideas into sharp, memorable insights that stay with readers long after they’ve finished reading.
