MOSCOW (MRC) -- There is still ongoing investigation of a special team composed of the Police of the Czech Republic and the Fire and Rescue Services in place of the accident at Unipetrol's site in Chempark Zaluzi, as per the company's press release.
At the moment, due to the safety reasons, experts of Unipetrol are allowed to enter only into selected parts of the damaged locations. There is ongoing progressive preventative checking if there is any damage of the statics at some constructions, as well as the final removal of residual hydrocarbons in technological facilities in order to ensure that the working of the maintenance team at the site is completely safe. Once the full access will be allowed, our specialists will map out the exact extent of the damages, plan the necessary repairs and schedule the restart of production.
Regarding the production in Chempark Zaluzi, the petrochemical operations remain shut down. The refinery produces mainly gasoline and diesel in a limited extent. At its minimum operation is also the production of agrochemicals. The emergency situation did not affect the refinery in Kralupy that is currently running at its full capacity.
The company wants to re-establish the production in the plant in the shortest possible term. Regarding the restart of operation in full extent, Unipetrol is still talking approximately about the horizon of months rather than weeks.
As MRC informed earlier, Unipetrol has declared force majeure on the petrochemical production section of its Litvinov complex, in the Czech Republic, following a 13 Aug. fire at the 544,000-t/y ethylene cracker. The company said the occurrence and continuation of the force majeure makes it impossible for Unipetrol to fill its contractual obligations with its business partners. Rail and road access to the complex is also temporarily closed.
In addition to the ethylene cracker, the complex includes a polypropylene unit and two polyethylene units, having a combined capacity of 595,000 t/y.
Unipetrol , a.s. is a group of companies operating in the petrochemical industry in the Czech Republic. In 2005 Unipetrol became a part of the PKN ORLEN Group, the largest oil processor in Central Europe. The UNIPETROL Group is oriented mostly towards oil processing, fuel distribution and petrochemical production. In all of these business areas the Unipetrol Group is among the key players both in the Czech Republic and on the Central European market. The Group ranks among the leading firms in the Czech Republic in terms of its revenues, and employs almost 4,000 people.
MRC