BASF confirms restart of Ludwigshafen steamcrackers, mourns colleagues

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LONDON (ICIS)–German chemicals major BASF on Thursday confirmed that its two steam crackers at Ludwigshafen in Germany have resumed production after the fire and explosion at the site on 17 October.

The crackers and several derivatives units were shut down as a precaution following the incident at the North Harbour area which killed three people and left several injured.

“Due to the fire, the raw material supply of the steamcrackers was halted; also other Verbund plants, especially in the ethylene and propylene value chains, were idled or production reduced. Some of the plants were able to continue producing using existing raw material inventory,” BASF said.

“Meanwhile several plants, like the steamcrackers, started production. In the coming weeks the remaining plants will be gradually restarted.

“BASF is evaluating various measures to minimise the impact on customer deliveries. BASF immediately informed the affected customers and is in close contact with them to keep them informed about the current availability of products.”

Speaking during a press conference on the company’s third-quarter earnings, CEO Kurt Bock expressed his deepest condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who had lost their lives and said that “BASF is mourning, all of us are mourning across the world”.

Margret Suckale, site director at Ludwigshafen, said: “The emergency forces operated in an extreme situation. Their effort cannot be expressed in words.” She went on to speak at length about the apparent cause – and the subsequent effects – of the explosion, which is still in the early stages of investigation.

Suckale confirmed that BASF is yet to begin its own investigation as the site is currently blocked by the prosecutors.

The information she revealed during the press conference was “based on evaluation of video clips from our fire brigade control centre, on the minutes of our crisis committee and on reports from the firefighters on site”, she said.

Suckale stressed that the company did not want to speculate on what may have caused the fire and subsequent explosion until all of the facts are known.

She did however reveal that an external pipeline engineering company which has been working for BASF “for many years” had been carrying out scheduled repairs at the time of the explosion.

“Since 13 Oct we had scheduled repair works taking place at a secure and empty propylene pipeline. BASF used an expert company for pipeline engineering which has been working for us for many years. Successful work was done on 13th and 14th of October.

“Work continued on 17th October and at 11.30am, a fire started near the assembly works. During the initiation of emergency operations an explosion, most likely at the ethylene pipeline, occurred.

“The explosion led to subsequent fires at various points along the pipeline trench, further damaging product and supply pipelines.”

On 26 October, the District Attorney of Franenthal/Palatinate and the Police HQ of Rheinpfalz released initial findings from their investigation.

They established that a cut in a pipeline that was not part of the maintenance work had been made with a cutting disc while other maintenance work using an angle grinder was in progress on an adjacent pipeline.

“The cut pipeline contained a butylene mixture. BASF assumes that this butylene mixture leaked out and ignited due to the sparks produced by the angle grinder,” said the preliminary evaluation of the possible chain of events.

When asked whether the apparent mistake was due to negligent safety measures, BASF stressed that safety is the primary concern and explained that “pipelines are clearly marked. A full safety check is always carried out before any maintenance work is done”.

The North Harbour is still closed but the riverside harbour, the harbour on Friesenheim Island and the tank farms are functional, BASF said.

 “I can’t tell you when the northland harbour will be operational again,” said Suckale. I cannot guarantee it will work again in X days or X weeks. The system is extremely complex. We want to be back fully operational as soon as possible.”

BASF’s CFO Hans-Ulrich Engel said that it is too difficult to predict the effect that the explosion will have on BASF’s end-of-year results as they have no official timeline for the site becoming fully operational again.

Similarly, he revealed that the company is insured against events such as this but he is unsure how long that process will take. “We are insured but compensation may not be awarded in the same period as the accident,” he said.

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Additional reporting by Graeme Paterson

Image: Firefighters battle the blaze at the BASF chemical company facility in Ludwigshafen, Germany, on the evening of Monday, 17 October 2016. (Xinhua News Agency/REX/Shutterstock)