MOSCOW (MRC) -- There was an explosion on Friday morning at Engen's oil refinery in Durban, a Durban metropolitan police official told Reuters, adding that police had not yet received reports about whether there had been injuries or deaths.
An Engen spokesman told Reuters he would comment later in a statement. According to Engen's website, the Durban refinery has a crude refining capacity of 120,000 barrels per day.
It is the second-largest crude refinery in South Africa.
As MRC wrote earlier, two people were killed in an explosion at Astron Energy’s 100,000 barrel per day refinery in Cape Town early on 2 July, 2020. 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 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.
We remind that on 18 August, 2020, Chevron Corp reported a fire at its 112,229-barrel-per-day (bpd) Pasadena, Texas facility. "At this time, flames, smoke may be noticeable to the community. We are coordinating with local officials, and working to resolve the issue as soon as possible," the company reported on August, 19.
We also remind that US-based Phillips 66 remains open to developing another ethane cracker for its Chevron Phillips Chemical (CP Chem) joint venture, the refiner's CEO said in March 2018.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
MRC