Maintenance of Formosa’s No 2 cracker delayed to October

03-Aug-10

Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemicals Corp plans to delay maintenance of its No 1.03 mln tpa No 2 cracker from Aug. 20 to an undecided date, probably in October, to ensure steady production, as per Reuters. Incidents at the 540,000 bpd Mailiao complex last month shut down other parts of its giant refinery complex. Thus, it is likely that Formosa will first reopen its 700,000 tpa No 1 naphtha cracker by September/October after a fire on July 7. Simultaneously, FPG will proceed with a government-ordered inspection of a residue sulphurisation unit where another fire shut part of the complex last week.