Blast at Total Petrochemicals’ French facility

16-Jul-09

A blast occurred at a plant belonging to the French oil and gas giant Total in Carling-Saint-Avold, near the German border. Two persons are reported to have been killed and five persons injured. The factory is linked by a pipeline network to most of Totals’ refineries. The steam cracker had been halted due to recent bad weather. One of its components blew up when it was restarted. The blast occurred in a steam-cracking furnace, which damaged equipment but didn't cause a fire. The furnace producing 250,000 tpa of ethylene exploded and caused the fire, that is now under control.