Formosa could take a year to restart residual desulfurization unit damaged by a July 25 fire

30-Jul-10

Formosa Petrochemical Corp. may take a year to restart the residual desulfurization unit damaged by a July 25 fire. However, the company may need 1-2 weeks to have two-thirds of its Mailiao oil refinery fully operational after a fire damaged a unit. Restart of one of the crude processing units at the plant is being readied, with possibility of feeding oil to it shortly. The 540,000 bpd refinery has been shuttered for safety reasons after on oil leak caused a fire at the No. 2 residual desulfurization unit. The refinery has three crude distillation units, each able to process 180,000 bpd. The plants heat crude and separate it into oil products, while residual desulfurization units remove sulfur from residual fuel. The fire was the second accident at FPG’s Mailiao complex this month. Formosa halted its No. 1 ethylene plant, which has an annual capacity of 700,000 metric tons, on July 7 after a fire. Direct losses from the fire are estimated at NT$500 mln (US$15.6 mln) as per a company statement.