Hurricane Gustav triggers several chemical plant and refinery shutdowns in Louisiana

02-Sep-08

Though it has lost its steam, Hurricane Gustav has triggered several chemical plant and refinery shutdowns in Louisiana. Gustav, which hit the coast of Louisiana, Monday morning, weakened on Monday afternoon to a category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Additional weakening was expected as the hurricane moved inland. Dow Chemical has shut down its Union Carbide plant in St Charles, Louisiana. Dow's capacity at the site is 1 mln tpa. Few of its plants at its Plaquemine site were also shut down, including 735,000 tpa of benzene, 1 mln tpa of caustic soda, 885,000 tpa of chlorine and 758,000 tpa of ethylene. Shell Chemicals shut down its Norco with a capacity of 1.5 mln tpa of ethylene, 1 mln tpa of propylene, and 260,000 tpa of butadiene. Shell's Geismar plant with capacity of 575,000 tpa of ethylene oxide and 465,000 tpa of ethylene glycols, has also been shut. BASF shut down its plants in Geismar and in Port Arthur, Texas with 265,000 tpa of aniline, 220,000 tpa of ethylene oxide and 275,000 tpa of nitrobenzene. The Port Arthur plants include 1 mn tpa of benzene, 935,000 tpa of ethylene and 860,000 tpa of propylene.