Royal Dutch Shell shuts ethylene cracker complex at Pulau Bukom

15-Dec-15

Royal Dutch Shell has shut its ethylene cracker complex at its Pulau Bukom manufacturing site in Singapore for maintenance to repair external corrosion in some areas, as per Reuters. "We have had to initiate a shutdown of the ethylene cracker complex ... for maintenance work to rectify accelerated external corrosion in specific areas," as per a company email statement. "As a result, we have declared force majeure on our ability to supply a number of chemical products from Singapore." The cracker produces more than 900,000 tpa of ethylene. Shell has informed its customers, and its supply team is working with them on alternate sources of supply. The company declared force majeure on base chemical products on Dec. 1, on high purity ethylene oxide and glycols on Dec. 4, and on propylene oxide, monopropylene glycol and polyols on Dec. 7. The spokeswoman did not say how long the cracker will be shut or how long the force majeure will be in place. The impact of the shutdown on the regional market, however, is expected to be minimal because there are few maintenance shutdowns scheduled over the winter for other crackers in Asia, which means petrochemical supplies will remain ample, Seoul-based industry sources said. Shell first experienced a glitch at the ethylene cracker complex in October and declared force majeure on base chemical products before lifting the shipping halt a few days later. Shell also operates a 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery at Bukom where a refining unit was hit by a fire in August. The unit is still shut following a stop work order by the Singapore government in September.