OMV declares C2, C3 FM in Schwechat

18-Apr-06

Following a forced shutdown of its fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) unit and problems with the main cracker, OMV has declared force majeure on its 500,000 tpa ethylene and 400,000 tpa propylene from its Schwechat, Austria site. Restart is anticipated for April 16. OMV's FCC and cracker provide feedstock for Borealis's polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) plants at the Schwechat site. The 300,000 tpa PP line is down, while there has been a reduction in the output of the second line The OMV outage has coincided with BASF's unplanned shutdown of its 800,000 tpa cracker in Antwerp, Belgium due to a fire that caused a power outage at its ethylene oxide (EO) and ethylene glycol (EG) units. BASF declared force majeure on ethylene supplies to all its European customers as of April 9th and made no estimates of the restart.