MOSCOW (MRC) -- Europe's largest methanol plant, in Norway's Tjeldbergodden industrial site, will remain closed until further notice following a fire at the facility earlier this week, operator Equinor told OPIS Thursday, said Chemweek.
"Production remains shut down at Tjeldbergodden following the fire in a compressor building at the site on Wednesday. It is too early to say when operations could resume," says Equinor spokesperson Morten Eek. Equinor is preparing for an internal investigation to identify the cause of the fire, according to Eek. The 900,000-metric tons/year methanol plant, owned by Equinor and ConocoPhillips, accounts for more than 25% of European production, according to Equinor data.
Market sources in the European methanol market said prices climbed after the plant shut down. "It will all depend on how long the plant is out for, how much inventory they have. Methanol [prices] in Rotterdam are up EUR10 [USD12] per metric ton in the last 24 hours," a source said.
"The market is now close to EUR300/metric ton, we started at EUR290/metric ton," a trader told OPIS Thursday. "There is some impact but not a huge one."
As MRC informed earlier, Equinor (Stavanger, Norway) has confirmed that a fire broke out on Wednedsday at 2.40pm local time in a compressor house at the company's methanol plant at Tjeldbergodden, Norway. Emergency services were dispatched and police, fire, and health services are at the scene, the company says. The fire was put out at 3.40pm, it says. When the fire started, site's air separation unit and the methanol plant were shut down, Equinor says. Personnel at the factory were evacuated and all emergency response procedures implemented, it says. Equinor's emergency response organization was assembled and authorities were notified.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and polypropylene (PP).
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