MOSCOW (MRC) -- French oil major Total said on Saturday that production at its 253,000 barrel-per-day Gonfreville Normandy refinery in northern France was partially halted following a fire that broke overnight, reported Reuters.
Deliveries of refined products are continuing and petrochemical units are operating normally, the group said in a statement.
The fire that broke out at 0300 GMT at Gronfreville, Total’s biggest refining platform in France, did not cause any injuries, the group said.
Total said the main fire had been extinguished but that a secondary blaze was still burning at the top of the unit, although it was under control. An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the fire.
The partial shutdown in output comes as concern has risen in the country about fuel shortages caused by a nationwide protest movement against pension reform.
The French government said on Friday that all the country’s refineries were operating and petrol stations were well supplied, despite some temporary problems with shipping their output at two of them.
"Total is doing everything in its power to ensure that there is no consequence on the fuel supply chain," the company said.
As MRC wrote before, in early November 2019, Total disclosed that it is evaluating construction of a new gas cracker at its Deasan, South Korea, joint venture (JV) with Hanwha Chemical.
Total is also developing a USD1.4-billion propane dehydrogenation and polypropylene (PP) complex at Arzew, Algeria, in partnership with Algeria’s state-owned oil company Sonatrach. The facilities will be designed to produce 600,000 metric tons/year each of propylene and PP. The project is in FEED phase with FID due in 2021.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and PP.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.
Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
MRC