Formosa Petrochemical Seeks to Defer Oil, Naphtha Imports After Accidents
Formosa Petrochemical Corp., Taiwan’s only publicly traded oil refiner, wants to defer some imports of naphtha and sour, or high-sulfur, crude after two accidents at its Mailiao plants last month.
“Our storage tanks are full,” spokesman Lin Keh-yen said by telephone in Taipei today, declining to give details.
Formosa plans to restart a second crude processing unit at Mailiao this week, after production at the first unit resumed last week, Lin said.
The refiner had shut its 540,000 barrel-a-day Mailiao plant for safety reasons after an oil leak triggered a blaze at its No. 2 residual desulfurization unit on July 25. Formosa halted its No. 1 ethylene plant, which has an annual capacity of 700,000 metric tons, on July 7 after a fire.
The company had begun the restart process of part of the refinery, Lin said July 29. Two-thirds of the refining capacity may be fully operational in one to two weeks, he said.
Formosa Petrochemical shares climbed 1.3 percent to close at NT$75.40 in Taipei trading as of 1:30 p.m. local time. The benchmark Taiex index of equities rose 2 percent.
The refinery has three crude distillation units, each able to process 180,000 barrels a day by heating oil and separating it into products. Residual desulfurization units remove sulfur.
The refiner operates three ethylene plants with a combined annual capacity of 2.935 million tons.
To contact the reporter on the story: Yu-huay Sun in Taipei at ysun7@bloomberg.net
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