Friday News Round Up

Being Friday, I thought it would be a good time to give an update on some of the stories covered in earlier postings.

Naphthachimie has been bringing plants back on stream at the Lavéra Site, whilst Arkema has been forced to declare force majeure on all PVC production in France due to the shutdown of the Lavéra VCM unit.

Jurong, the Singapore Chemical Park celebrated the completion of its land reclamation project - many years ahead of schedule.

ExxonMobil shared the secrets of its success in reaching number 2 in the ICIS list of Top 100 Chemical companies. In an interview with Bloomberg, an EM spokesperson reiterated the company strategy of integration and optimisation throughout the entire value chain.

OPEC shared its view on economic recovery, stating their belief that it will be slow and gradual. The group left its world oil demand forecast for 2010 unchanged.

Lavéra Shut Down Due to Major Steam Leak

photo: La Provence /Naphthachimie

A major steam leak on Saturday 5th September has led to a total shutdown of all of the petrochemical plants at the Lavéra Site, near Marseille in the South of France.

This has affected plants owned by Ineos, Arkema and Naphthachimie (a Total/Ineos JV). Early reports indicate that these shutdowns are already impacting a number of markets, most notably for polypropylene.

It appears that a sudden and catastrophic failure of a 25 bar steam header caused the incident, which also led to a minor ethylene release from a nearby pipeline. Initial reports from the operator, Naphthachimie, suggest that the incident was caused by 'operational reasons' as they consider that the system was well maintained and regularly inspected. Some of the local unions have, however, expressed concern about the potential impacts of on-going cost cuts at the site, with reductions of 24% targeted by 2013.

Most importantly, no-one was hurt in this incident but, whatever the cause, such a major shutdown is very costly and a major concern issue for all impacted parties.