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Formosa Petrochemical Corp. has shut its 540,000 barrel per day Mailiao refinery in Taiwan after a fire at a secondary unit Sunday evening.
The cause of the fire, which was still burning Monday afternoon, is under investigation, company spokesperson Sally Lan said. The secondary unit appears to have been leaking before the blaze began, Lan added.
The damage appears to be isolated to one processing train, but Formosa has shut down the entire refinery for safety reasons.
The fire started at about 8 p.m. in an 80,500 b/d residual desulfurizer (RDS), which strips sulfur from residue before it is upgraded in a gasoline-making residual fluid catalytic cracker. The damaged RDS unit is connected to one of...