SHEL Shell Plc

Efforts to contain a fire that ignited one of the production units at Shell's Deer Park, Texas, Chemicals Complex on Friday afternoon remain ongoing Monday after the unit reignited over the weekend, according to the company's Twitter account and a community hotline notice.

The fire initially started at the facility's olefins unit while igniting products including cracked heavy gas oil, cracked light gas oil and gasoline, according to Shell's Deer Park Chemicals Twitter account.

Shell operates two olefins units at the chemicals complex with a total nameplate capacity of 2.6 billion lbs/year of ethylene, or roughly 3% of North American capacity.

U.S. Gulf Coast ethylene prices inched higher after the announcement began Friday afternoon, with prices at the Enterprise hub (MtB-EPC) in Mont Belvieu, Texas at over 17cts/lb and prices at the Choctaw hub in Louisiana at around 15cts/lb.

By Saturday morning the company had announced via Twitter that the fire had been extinguished, but that it would "continue to monitor the affected area for hot spots that could reignite." By late Saturday afternoon, remaining on-site product had reignited.

Air monitoring did not report harmful levels of chemicals nor was the fire event a danger to the local community despite the presence of black smoke, some flaring and increased noise from the facility.

Sunday morning, Shell announced via Twitter that the reignited fire had not been extinguished, but that it had "been contained to a controlled zone" at the complex.

A community hotline notice further stated that "Due to excessive water needed to control fire at the facility, Shell has exceeded wastewater storage capacity. A controlled discharge is being sent to the Houston Ship Channel. The site has deployed boom within the on-site water pond to prevent product from entering the channel."

Per the community hotline, neighboring PEMEX Deer Park refinery also reported a sheen in the Houston Ship Channel, which was not believed to have originated from PEMEX's facility.

No major injuries were reported and all site personnel were accounted for as a result of the containment efforts, the company additionally announced.

This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

--Reporting by Adam Burkin, aburkin@opisnet.com; Editing by Bobbie Clark, bclark@opisnet.com, and Barbara Chuck, bchuck@opisnet.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 08, 2023 13:12 ET (17:12 GMT)

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