Unit at Sasol’s Lake Charles plant remains shut after fire

21st January 2020

By: Bloomberg

  

Font size: - +

Sasol is still assessing the damage from an explosion and fire at its Lake Charles plant in Louisiana a week after the incident.

The explosion at the low-density polyethylene unit at Lake Charles on January 13 could be heard across southwest Louisiana and blew the hurricane doors off a fire department building located next to the plant, according to local broadcaster KPLC. The unit – one of two large polymers plants – is a key part of Lake Charles’ operations.

“As the investigation has just commenced, it is still early for us to provide an estimate for a startup date” for the unit, Sasol said in a statement. All other previously commissioned Lake Charles units are unaffected and operating according to plan.

The incident and resulting damage is the latest in a string of setbacks at the megaproject that have punished Sasol’s share price. The cost of the plant has increased about 50% from initial estimates. It also uncovered mismanagement at the project, which led to the firing of its co-CEOs last year.

The plant will produce the building blocks of products including packaging, bottles and footwear, plus solvents, explosives and fertilisers. Once completed, it will boost the portion of chemicals in Sasol’s sales mix to 70%.

Edited by Bloomberg

Comments

The functionality you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION