SHEL Shell Plc

A fire at one of the production units at Shell's Deer Park, Texas, chemicals complex on Friday afternoon was extinguished Sunday night, according to a press conference Monday afternoon.

The unified response group to the incident consists of the U.S. Coast Guard, Texas General Land Office, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and other authorities jointly with Shell Chemicals' response team.

Hot spots are still being monitored, the response group announced. In addition the chemical discharge valve from the facility had been closed, resulting in no further material exiting the facility.

Fence-line air monitoring efforts from multiple local agencies indicated that air quality is not a threat to nearby communities.

The commission stated that it will be collecting and testing water samples from the facility as part of the ongoing investigation as to the fire and discharge's impact to the surrounding environment.

A Shell plant manager stated that the company has not issued force majeure relating to the incident and that it is evaluating the production status of the facility as more information regarding the fire emerges. The facility has alerted communities that they will likely see intermittent flaring, per the site's Twitter account.

A Coast Guard representative stated that the latest discharge from the facility into the Houston Ship Channel has not shown any negative impacts to local waterways and will continue to focus its efforts on waste mitigation. Nearby retention ponds are being used to cool some facility equipment.

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 the facility's 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 were higher as of midday Monday, with prices at the Enterprise hub (MtB-EPC) in Mont Belvieu, Texas, above 17cts/lb and prices at the Choctaw hub in Louisiana at around 15cts/lb.

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 Anna Matherne, amatherne@opisnet.com, and Barbara Chuck, bchuck@opisnet.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 08, 2023 14:59 ET (18:59 GMT)

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