Sinopec Gaoqiao Petrochemical’s economic loss at the weekend or nearly 300 million yuan

This September, it is not calm for the Shanghai chemical industry.

On September 10, a fire broke out in the low temperature tank area of ​​Shanghai Secco Petrochemical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Secco Petrochemicals"), an ethylene producer in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Zone; just two weeks later, on September 23, 22 About 20 minutes later, the Sinopec Shanghai Gaoqiao Branch (hereinafter referred to as “Xiaoqiao Petrochemical”) in the Shanghai Pudong New Area once again set fire to a fire, and the fire was controlled within about 3 hours. As to the specific cause of the fire, Sinopec said it has not yet been identified.

According to stakeholders from Gaoqiao Petrochemical, in order to ensure safety and conduct investigations, the company’s coke devices have all been discontinued. It is understood that the company's annual coke production capacity is approximately 1.4 million tons/year. At the end of last week, the coke contract price was RMB 2,190/ton. If Gaoqiao Petrochemical calculated the price according to the price, its annual sales of coke would be about RMB 3.06 billion. According to estimates by Takahashi Petrochemical insiders, if an accident occurs, production may stop for a month or more. Then, the company’s direct economic losses caused by the accident may be nearly 300 million yuan.

Gaoqiao Petrochemical revealed to reporters that the fire occurred in the No. 2 delayed coking unit of Gaoqiao Petrochemical's No. 2 delayed coking plant at the top of the coke tower south tower (hereinafter referred to as the “coke tower”). According to the reporter's observation, the location of the accident was at the Zhonggao Road and Pudong North Road junction in Pudong New Area, Shanghai. After nearly three hours of hard work by firefighters, the fire was finally extinguished at 1:28 a.m. on the 24th. The fire did not cause casualties.

A young man in his 20s living near Gangcheng Road told reporters: “At that time our family immediately went out after hearing the explosion. I saw a big fire on the top half of a (coke) tower. And as the sky shone, the fire still spread to the bottom of the tower. My home was about 300 to 400 meters away from the device. In order not to be affected, I decided not to go home and wait for the fire to be extinguished."

After the fire was controlled at about 23 o'clock on the 23rd, there was still a significant amount of light about 1 floor above the coke drum. The reporter learned from Takahashi Petrochemical. “The company also has a lot of staff who are close to the tower during the entire (fire) process.” The reporter also found that no evacuation was performed on the site, and the surrounding roads such as Pudong North Road were only sealed. Half the road.

The accident coke tower was an equipment in the “delayed coking” workshop.

The so-called "delayed coking" device is based on heavy oil (such as residual oil) as a raw material, deep reaction at high temperatures, gas production, gasoline, diesel, wax oil and coke. According to statistics, there are 128 units (seats) of delayed coking series equipment of Takahashi Petrochemical, including 5 towers, 23 cold-exchange equipments, and the rest are containers and pumps.

Because the staff of the delayed coking facility must strictly perform operations in accordance with regulations, this poses some hidden dangers to the safe production of the device. In February of this year, the coke drum tower has added a facility called “Safety Interlock System” to reduce operational risks.

According to sources related to Gaoqiao Petrochemical, on September 24, the Shanghai Safety Supervision Bureau, the Bureau of Quality Supervision, and the Fire Bureau jointly formed an accident investigation team. The cause of the coke drum accident is still under investigation.

Sinopec insiders also admitted that the current refinery and related facilities of Gaoqiao Petrochemical are not far away from the individual residential buildings in Pudong.

The reporter saw from the map that the left side of Gaoqiao Petrochemical is close to the Huangpu River, which is conducive to oil transportation, and the nearest residential areas on the right are some bungalows, but it is still compared with Helong Xinyuan, Qingxiyuan and other communities. Nearly, Gaoqiao Petrochemical is less than 1km away from its nearest neighbourhood.

Sinopec insiders also admitted that for Gaoqiao Petrochemical, relocation is not an easy task. “In fact, Takahashi Petrochemical was built in the early part of the last century. The company’s neighbors were originally rural, but with population growth and real estate. With the gradual development of the project, there are also some residential communities around Gaoqiao Petrochemical.” More importantly, if Gaoqiao Petrochemical’s installations are to be moved, they must wait until the refineries in Shanghai Chemical Industry Park or other regions are completed. "The relocation involves the suspension of production of the plant. If the Gaoqiao petrochemical refinery is discontinued, it will have a great impact on the supply of oil in Shanghai and its surrounding cities, but so far it does not seem easy to achieve."

Of course, in an environmentally-friendly country such as Germany, some large multinational corporations are also very close to the residential community. There are villa areas opposite BASF. BASF's insiders once told this newspaper that for chemical plants, the most important thing is to do daily maintenance and start the appropriate safety measures in an emergency.