DATE : 2017-08-31
Arkema confirmed at 10:30 BST on Thursday that explosions and smoke have been reported at its plant in Crosby, Texas, following flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey.
The plant produces liquid organic peroxides which, if not refrigerated, can decompose and catch fire. The company and local authorities had warned of this and the area had been evacuated.
“Organic peroxides are extremely flammable and, as agreed with public officials, the best course of action is to let the fire burn itself out,” said the company’s statement on Thursday.
“We want local residents to be aware that product is stored in multiple locations on the site, and a threat of additional explosion remains. Please do not return to the area within the evacuation zone until local emergency response authorities announce it is safe to do so.”
The leak of hazardous chemicals into the atmosphere was also confirmed by local authorities at 10:00 BST (4:00 Houston time). The Harris County Sheriff’s Office [HCSO], where Crosby is located, said that one of its deputies had been taken to hospital after inhaling fumes from the plant, and that nine others had driven themselves to hospital as a precaution.
Earlier in the day, a spokesperson at Arkema told ICIS how the explosion had become inevitable after the refrigeration systems at the plant had failed to function following flooding.
Arkema confirmed that flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey at its liquid organic peroxides plant in Crosby, Texas, was impeding the cooling of the chemicals and an explosion at the facility was unavoidable.
In an update on 30 August, the company had said alternative diesel-powered refrigerators were being used, although already at the time spoke of a “real” risk of explosion as all electricity has been cut off.
“Unfortunately, yes [the plant will catch fire]. The cooling system is not working anymore, so the temperature is rising up and these products will decompose and will catch fire,” said the Arkema spokesperson in an update to ICIS on Thursday at 9:30 BST.
However, it added the time to the explosion was difficult to predict.
While the company continues to monitor the rising temperatures, the spokesperson said the monitoring system’s batteries would also switch off when they run out of power.
“When the batteries die, we will not have any information related to the rising temperature. It is difficult to predict when the fire will start.”
The spokesperson said the company has not yet evaluated the financial impact from the upcoming accident nor the time it will take to rebuild the facility.
“It will depends on the damages but it’s too early to have this question in mind. First, [we need to establish] what happened, what will happen and what impact will have,” it concluded.
As a precautionary measure, local authorities had already ordered late on 29 August the evacuation of all residents within a 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometres) radio from the plant. Crosby is a small town east of Houston.
According to the company’s website, the Crosby facility employs 57. Its exact location is 18000 Crosby Eastgate Road, Crosby, Texas.
Among other organic peroxides, Arkema produces at its Crosby plant plastic resins, polystyrene (PS), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyester reinforced fibreglass, as well as acrylic resin.
Several chemical plants in Texas have been affected by Harvey, with many shut since 25 August. The tropical storm is now heading to neighbouring US state of Louisiana.
Sourc Icis News
DATE : 2017-08-30
ASF declared force majeure on its acrylic monomers and its oxo-alcohols at its Freeport, Texas, plant, stemming from Hurricane Harvey’s landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast, the acrylic acid and acrylates esters producer said on Tuesday.
The storm restricted BASF’s ability to process material at the Freeport plant site, prompting the measures, effective 29 August, the company said in a customer letter.
The measures include glacial acrylic acid (GAA), butyl acrylate (butyl-A), ethyl acrylate (ethyl-A), methyl acrylate (methyl-A), 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (2-EHA), n-butanol (NBA), iso-butanol (IBA) and 2-ethylhexanol (2-EH).
The measures could exert upward pressure on prices. Earlier, these were expected to be steady again in September after settling flat for August.
Previously, American Acryl shut down its acrylic acid plant in Bayport, Texas, because of Hurricane Harvey.
With August’s moderate propylene-contract increase, feedstock pressure was not expected to play much of a role in September acrylates or oxo-alcohols price direction, but supply constraints will, despite waning seasonal buying interest, sources said.
Another oxo-alcohols producer was already considering some volume constraints on upstream n-butanol (NBA), given what it described as heightened interest in US NBA exports due to tight supply in Asia.
Acrylates are commonly used to make products including paint and coatings, plastics and construction and pressure-sensitive adhesives.
Acrylates suppliers in the US include Arkema, BASF, Dow Chemical and Sasol.
N-butanol (NBA) is used as a solvent and to produce butyl acrylates for the coatings and adhesives industries. Smaller-volume uses are in acetate and glycol ether formulations.
Among the major uses for 2-EH are as a feedstock for chemicals used in the production of paint, automobiles, adhesives and plasticizers, and in building and construction markets.
US oxo-alcohols producers include BASF, Dow Chemical, Eastman and Oxea.
Souce Icis News
DATE : 2017-08-07
Here is a plant status report:
Name: Jilin Petrochemical
Location: Jilin, China
Product: Methyl Methacrylates (MMA)
Capacity: 50,000 tonnes/year
Event start: 8 August 2017
Event finish: Unknown
Reason: Raw materials Acrylonitrile (ACN) were in short supply
Comments:
The company shuts its No.2 MMA plant on 8 August. Its No.1, which can produce 50,000 tonnes/year of MMA, was taken off line for maintenance in end June, according to a source close to the company.
The two plants restart time was unknown at present. but ICIS estimates the restart date to be end August or early September.
Source Icis News
DATE : 2017-08-07
Capacity: 182,000 tonnes/year
Event start: 7 August 2017
Event finish: 12 August 2017
Reason: Raw materials Acrylonitrile (ACN) were in short supply
Comments: The capacity is 180,000 tonnes/year , according to the company source.
Source Icis News
DATE = 2017-08-02
BASF has started commissioning the propylene pipeline that was damaged by a fatal explosion and fire at its Ludwigshafen, Germany, site, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.
The pipeline connects BASF’s petrochemicals hub at Ludwigshafen with the MIRO refinery in Karlsruhe. The force majeure that was declared on propylene offtake in the immediate aftermath of the incident, remains in place.
“Overall the raw material supply at the site remains limited,” the company spokesman said.
He added that the North Harbour was still “largely out of action” but reiterated comments made last week in BASF’s second-quarter chemicals earnings briefing that the company expects the repair work to have been completed by the end of September.
Propylene supply has tightened over the past few weeks on the back of a series of production hiccups and hear-related reductions, while demand has been strong.
Source Icis News
DATE = 2017-08-01
Royal Dutch Shell has shut down “most of its units” at its Pernis facility in Rotterdam after a fire struck the facility late on 29 July, the Anglo-Dutch crude and chemicals major confirmed on Monday.
The company said the incident had been caused by a fire at a power station within the facility.
“At around 22:30 on July 29, Shell Pernis experienced a power outage due to a fire in a power supply system. Shell Pernis has decided to shut down most of its units in a safe and prompt manner, and this has resulted in flaring,” said the company in a statement.
“All appropriate agencies were notified and we continue to keep the local community informed. There were no injuries associated with this incident.”
A spokesperson for Shell on Monday declined to comment further on the disruption’s potential duration nor on the units affected.
Rotterdam sits in the crude oil and petrochemical hub of Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA), which is key for the production and distribution of product across the northwest Europe area.
Shell’s facility at Pernis processes 404,000 bbl/day of crude oil products such as diesel, jet kerosene, base oils, liquefied petroleum gases or fuel oil.
The company also produces polyols and solvents at the facility. According to the ICIS plants and projects database, Pernis has a production capacity of 250,000 tonnes/year for propylene and 150,000 tonnes/year of isopropanol (IPA) at Pernis.
It has also production capacities for methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), at 90,000 tonnes/year, and for methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) at 45,000 tonnes/year.
European aromatics players were assessing on Monday afternoon the fire’s potential impact in the market, although most sources said it was too early to establish how the domestic benzene and styrene markets could be affected.
When Shell started its Pernis new aromatics unit in 2016 it said that benzene from the unit would be sent to its other chemical plants at its Moerdijk site where it would be processed to produce styrene monomer.
“Based on that, it [the incident at Pernis] could have an impact on styrene spot numbers,” a trader said.
Early on Monday afternoon, Europe styrene August bids and offers were at $1,150-1,200/tonne on a notional basis.
Other aromatics sources said it is too early to assess any impact, however.
“Any effect should have more to do with benzene than styrene, but for the moment we do not see anything,” said one source.
Discussions for the August benzene contract price were ongoing on Monday, with a settlement expected later in the day, and sources said there was no real pressure on talks yet as a consequence of the Pernis incident.
“There should be some impact but it will also depend on how long the refinery will be down,” a benzene trader said.
Source Icis News
2017-08-15
BASF has declared force majeure on deliveries of Acrylic Monomers on 19 October, in a letter seen by ICIS on Thursday.
The declaration covers glacial acrylic acid, butyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, glacial methacrylic acid and technical grade methacrylic acid from their site in Ludwigshafen.
This follows on from the explosion at the north harbour part of the site which resulted in fires on Monday 17 October.
The acrylic monomer plants are not directly affected, though there are impacts on logistics and raw material deliveries, the letter reported.
BASF said on Wednesday evening that within days it will begin restarting its steam crackers at the Ludwigshafen petrochemicals hub on the Rhine river in Germany.
Source Icis News
DATE : 2017-08-03
Nippon Shokubai’s first-quarter net profit grew 34.6% year on year to Japanese yen (Y) 6.39bn ($58m), partly on increased production and sales volume, the chemicals producer said on Thursday.
Operating profit in the three months ended 30 June 2017 also increased by 34.6% to Y7.55bn, with net sales up by 11.5% at Y80.3bn, the company said in a statement.
In the basic chemicals segment, operating profit increased by 54.2% year on year to Y4.07bn, while net sales rose by 13.6% to Y30.2bn, as sales volume of acrylic acid and its derivatives increased, Nippon Shokubai said.
In the performance chemicals segment, operating profit for the June quarter rose by 7.0% to Y3.35bn, with net sales up 8.5% at Y42.7bn, the producer said.
Source Icls News