Indspec said it is closing its Petrolia plant due, in part, to an unfavorable market outlook for its main product, resorcinol.

PETROLIA — About 220 employees of Indspec Chemical Corp. will lose their jobs this summer when the plant in Petrolia will cease operations, the parent company announced Monday.

“Everybody's in shock,” said Ronald Bowser, president of United Steelworkers Local USW 13300, which represents the hourly workers.

Executives from Texas-based Occidental Petroleum, which owns Indspec, notified employees of its plans to permanently close the plant on July 31.

Indspec, in a prepared statement, cited the problems of oversupply and global competition as reasons for shuttering the plant.

“Our workers have made a significant effort over the last several years to improve the viability of the plant,” said plant manager Andre Salameh in the statement.

“Nevertheless,” he continued, “the outlook for the business continues to be unfavorable due to a number of factors, including a global oversupply of our main product, resorcinol, and because Indspec's manufacturing process is not as efficient as that of global competitors.”

Indspec is considered one of the world's largest resorcinol producers and the only commercial resorcinol producer in the United States.

Resorcinol is used to produce rubber adhesives, dyes and cosmetics.

Along with resorcinol, the Petrolia plant makes resorcinol-based resins and other derivatives, according to the company's website. It also produces selected grades of sodium sulfite and sodium sulfate in its product line.

Indspec sold its Penacolite resins business last year, company spokesman Alan Moses said, and agreed to continue making the substance, which is used in tires and mechanical rubber products, at the Petrolia plant for a transition period, which will cease at the end of July.

Bowser and Moses said 161 hourly jobs and about 60 additional salaried positions will be lost in the plant closing. The USW contract at Indspec expires Aug. 4.

“We're concerned of the impact on members and their families,” Bowser said. “But the impact is going to be drastic on the community. It's going to be devastating to the schools and the tax base.”

Moses said the company expects to offer severance, outplacement services and other counseling to all employees. Some workers, he said, could be retained in jobs at other locations within the chemical division of the parent company.

“Obviously this is terribly disappointing, said Leslie Osche, chairman of the Butler County Commissioners, who was in Harrisburg on Monday with fellow Commissioners Kevin Boozel and Kim Geyer. “Indspec has been a steady employer with good-paying jobs.”

Petrolia and neighboring communities will feel a double blow, Osche said, because the company leadership has served as good citizens as well, providing guidance and contributing dollars to many community causes over the years.

Bowser said he did not know if there was any chance the company would reverse its decision.

“But we're going to contact our legislators,” he said, “to see what, if anything, can be done.”

The decision to close the facility was not an easy one, Salameh said in the company statement.

“This was a difficult decision,” he said, “as we have been a part of the Petrolia community since the 1920s.”