Louisiana plants restart post-Gustav; FM lifted

09 September 2008 19:53  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Many chemical plants in Louisiana are restarting their plants following disruptions caused by Hurricane Gustav, companies said on Tuesday.

One company has now confirmed a partial lifting of the force majeure it declared last week.

As of Friday, six companies had declared a force majeure as a result of power outages or other disruptions caused by the storm. 

As of 11:00 hours Houston time (16:00 GMT) on Tuesday, power had been restored to 82% of the Louisiana customers served by Entergy, the state's main electricity provider.

Entergy should restore power to all of the state by the end of 1 October, the company said.

Already, PPG Industries has lifted its force majeure on chlorine, ethyl chloride, perchloroethylene (perc), trichloroethylene (TCE), 1,1,1-trichloroethane and hydrogen, the company said.

The declaration followed disruptions at its complex in Lake Charles, the company said.

PPG's force majeure remains on liquid caustic soda, ethylene dichloride (EDC) and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), the company said. PPG has maintained order control on its Pels dry caustic-soda beads.

Occidental Chemical (OxyChem) had declared force majeure on caustic soda as a result of disrupted operations at its Louisiana plants in Taft, Geismar and Convent, the company said.

All three plants had problems accessing feedstock and getting power, said Richard Kline, OxyChem spokesman.

The company's Taft plant has power, and it is back up at nearly 100%, he said.

Geismar and Convent also have power, Kline said. However, they are still in the start-up phase.

If all goes well, Geismar and Convent could resume operations by the end of the week, Kline said.

Georgia Gulf had declared force majeure on caustic soda as a result of disruptions at its Plaquemine plant.

The company is now in the process of restarting the plant, a company executive said.

In other news, CF Industries has restored electrical power and natural gas supplies to its nitrogen complex in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, the company said. CF Industries is now testing circuitry and equipment, in preparation for start up by mid-week.

If start up proceeds as expected, all units at the complex should be in production by late next week, CF said.

Enterprise Products said one of its facilities in Louisiana is waiting for commercial power. Otherwise, all of its on-shore sites in Louisiana are operational.

Placid Refining said its 56,000 bbl/day Port Allen refinery in Louisiana was partially up and running as of Friday.

The refinery is currently producing about half the normal daily amount of gasoline and approximately two-thirds of the normal daily amount of low-sulphur diesel fuel, the company said.

(Additional reporting by Leela Landress and Steven McGinn)

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By: Al Greenwood
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