Japan’s TonenGeneral shuts Wakayama PX lines after fire

Pearl Bantillo

23-Jan-2017

TonenGeneral

(adds details on two fire incidents at the refinery)

SINGAPORE (ICIS–Japan’s TonenGeneral Sekiyu KK has shut its two paraxylene (PX) production lines in Wakayama in the city of Arita following a fire at the site on 22 January, market sources said on Monday.

TonenGeneral has a 190,000 tonne/year No 1 PX line and a 140,000 tonne/year No 2 line in Wakayama.

“All units in the Wakayama refinery have been shut. Both the PX lines have been taken off line,” a source with knowledge of the matter said.

TonenGeneral produces gasoline, naphtha, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel fuel, fuel oil, lubricants, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and petrochemicals, including benzene.

The company’s Wakayama refinery was hit by two fire incidents over a five-day period last week.

On 22 January, the fire erupted at around 15:40 Japan time (6:40 GMT) at TonenGeneral’s lubricating oil production unit and had continued to rage into the evening and started to spread to other units at the site, prompting the evacuation of residents within the vicinity, the company said in a statement.

The evacuation order was lifted on Monday morning, according to media reports.

Five days earlier on 18 January, a fire occurred at the Wakayama refinery at around 6:50am during tank cleaning operations. The fire was extinguished at around 3:30pm and there were no injuries, TonenGeneral said.

Initial reporting by Paul Lim and Tahir Ikram

Top photo: TonenGeneral’s Wakayama refinery (Source: TonenGeneral)

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