Gustav aftermath delays restart at Dow’s Taft unit

03 September 2008 16:25  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Dow Chemical Co has delayed the restart of its ethanolamines plant in Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Gustav, a company source said on Wednesday.

 

“The plant is fine and there are no safety issues,” the source added.

 

However, it was unclear when personnel would be able to return to the site to commence the restart.

 

 

The Taft unit with a nameplate capacity of 154,000 tonnes/year has been shutdown for routine maintenance since 26 June and was due to restart in the first week of September.

 

Meanwhile, INEOS’ unit in Plaquemine, Louisiana was also reported to be down due to a power failure as a result of Gustav and was not expected to restart for one to two weeks.

 

The INEOS unit has a nameplate capacity of 160,000 tonnes/year and together with Dow’s Taft unit accounts for just over 45% of US ethanolamines capacity.

 

The figure could even be as high as 70% of the country’s production being out with rumours of another major producer shutdown in Texas. However, it was unknown if this was scheduled maintenance or an unexpected outage and details could not be confirmed.

 

Hurricane Gustav struck the US Gulf coast on Monday but has since been downgraded to a tropical depression.

 

To discuss issues facing the chemicals industry visit ICIS connect 

By: Jane Massingham
+44 20 8652 3214

< previous article(ICIS Chemical Business podcast November 2, 2009)

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