BP sees partial resumption of Hull, UK VAM plant in July

25 June 2003 13:39  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--BP hopes to resume production next month from its vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant at Hull in northeast England, a spokesman for the UK-headquartered energy and chemicals group said Wednesday.

However, output from the approximately 250 000 tonne/year capacity plant is likely to be intermittent and at reduced rates until the technical problems which forced production to be halted in late May are fully resolved.

The plant, which is less than two years old, was the first to employ BP's Leap process, which uses a fluidised bed reactor rather than the fixed bed reactors of conventional processes. It was shut in mid April for full recatalysation, explained a BP Chemicals spokesman. However, it suffered technical problems associated with the catalyst when brought back online, he added.

"We hope to restart the plant very early in the third quarter," he said. "But it may for a while run intermittently and at reduced rates while further work is carried out to rectify the problem."

He was unable to comment immediately on an industry report that the plant may be closed completely in September for the installation of a new catalyst.

The spokesman stressed, however, that the current problems have had no adverse impact on customers. Demand has been met in full through a combination of production from elsewhere in the global BP network, swap deals and joint ventures, he explained.

By: Neil Sinclair
+44 20 8652 3214

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