Taiwan’s Formosa shuts Mailiao MTBE plant on refinery outage

02 August 2011 03:43  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC) has shut its 190,000 tonne/year methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) plant in Mailiao because of a fire over the weekend that prompted a full shutdown of its 540,000 bbl/day refinery at the site, a source close to the company on Tuesday.

Formosa has declared a force majeure on all petroleum products from the Mailiao complex, including MTBE, he added.

“The plant was shut because of safety reasons after the fire,” the source said.

It remains unclear when the unit will resume production, he said.

FPCC had meant to shut the MTBE unit for a month-long turnaround starting from 1 August.

For more on MTBE, visit ICIS chemical intelligence

By: Felicia Loo

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