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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Two people were killed
in an explosion at Astron Energy’s 100,000 barrel per day refinery in Cape Town
early on Thursday, reported Reuters with
reference to emergency officials' confirmation.
The Western Cape’s
emergency medical services said one male and one female died on site and seven
people sustained minor injuries and were taken to hospital.
The fire at
South Africa’s third-biggest crude oil refinery started at around 4 a.m. (0200
GMT), said Astron Energy, which is majority owned by commodities trader
Glencore.
“The resultant fire has been contained and all work on the
plant has been suspended,” said a spokeswoman.
She said Astron would
release an updated statement later.
The Milnerton plant, which had been
in the process of restarting after undergoing extended maintenance, was shut
down after this morning’s fire.
“At first I thought it was thunder, but
it was just like one big rumble and you could feel the vibrations,” said Felix
Holm, who lives some 500 metres away from the refinery.
“It woke me up,
the explosion,” he told Reuters.
The refinery, which Glencore acquired as
part of an almost USD1 billion deal with Chevron, earlier this year completed a
400 million rand (USD23.69 million) upgrade to produce very low sulphur fuel for
ships docking in Cape Town port.
The shutdown comes at a crucial time for
South Africa as it reopens after its COVID-19-related lockdown. Industry body
SAPIA said in May that the country was facing a diesel shortage due to a spike
in demand as restrictions on movement eased.
Africa’s most industrialised
economy is a net importer of crude and petroleum products.
As MRC informed earlier,
following Sasol’s (Johannesburg) announcement on 17 March of steps it is taking
to overcome its financial problems, the company has informed the Johannesburg
stock exchange that it is taking further actions in response to the
fast-developing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
We remind
that in mid December 2019, Sasol announced that the
LCCP Ethane Cracker was increasing production rates following the successful
replacement of the acetylene reactor catalyst. Sasol’s Ethane Cracker with a
nameplate capacity of 1.54 million tons per year achieved beneficial operation
in August 2019 but has run approximately 50-60% of nameplate capacity due to
underperformance of the plant’s acetylene removal system. The company stated
that the issue had been resolved then.
Ethylene and propylene are
feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene
(PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 595,170 tonnes in the first five
month of 2020, up by 10% year on year. Deliveries of all ethylene polymers,
except for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), rose partially because of an
increase in capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP
shipments to the Russian market was 457,930 tonnes in January-May 2020
(calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Deliveris of
exclusively PP random copolymer increased. |
