MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Plastics Corp., part of Formosa Petrochemical - the world's petrochemical major, has agreed to pay nearly USD3 million in civil penalties for violating the Clean Air Act, reported Reuters with reference to the US Department of Justice announced.
The Texas plastics company also agreed to improve its risk management program at its petrochemical plant in Point Comfort.
The US Environmental Protection Agency began investigating Formosa after a series of fires, explosions and accidental releases at the plant in Point Comfort, a city on the Gulf Coast about 105 miles (170 kilometers) southwest of Houston.
Workers suffered burns and inhaled chlorine as a result of those accidents, which happened from 2013 to 2016, the DOJ said.
“Formosa repeatedly failed to comply with the chemical accident prevention provisions of the Clean Air Act at the Point Comfort plant, repeatedly placing their workers, neighbors and the environment in danger,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
The company said it has added a team of health and safety professionals to help ensure similar accidents don't happen in the future. Formosa has also increased staffing in its process safety management department, according to Ken Mounger, executive vice president.
In 2019, Formosa agreed to pay USD50 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Texas residents over allegations that the company spilled tons of pellets into waterways near the Gulf of Mexico.
As MRC informed previously, Formosa Plastics USA partially restarted its Baton Rouge operations, which include a 513,000 mt/year polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant, post-Ida on September 7, 2021. Meanwhile, the company is awaiting full restoration of normal industrial gas feedstock supply.
We remind that Formosa Plastics USA has postponed the start-up of its expanded PVC production capacities at its existing plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Q4 2022. Initially, the company planned to launch the expanded capacities at its 513,000 mt/year of PVC plant in Q4 2021. Formosa did not respond to inquiries about the delay. The company intends to debottleneck production at this plant, adding 130,077 mt/year of PVC capacity, according to permitting documents.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall production of unmixed PVC totalled 580,500 tonnes in the first seven months of 2021, up by 4% year on year. At the same time, one producer reduced its output.
Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company"s plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
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