Shell puts US propylene on FM as Norco Louisiana outage lingers

17 December 2010 20:26  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS)--Shell has declared force majeure (FM) on US propylene because of a continued outage at its GO-1 Norco cracker in Louisiana, market sources said on Friday.

The company shut down the 558,000 tonne/year unit in the first week of December after a steam line ruptured.

The restriction was set at 85%, sources said.

A company spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shell has also put US ethylene on FM at 90% of deliveries. That restriction was announced immediately after the outage.

Shell has a second cracker in Norco, OL-5, with 862,000 tonnes/year of ethylene capacity.

A restart date for GO-1 remained unknown, sources said.

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By: William Lemos
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