LOTTE Chemical Explosion to Influence Asian Naphtha Imports
According to foreign media, at about 2:59 a.m. on March 4, there was a huge explosion at the Daesan plant of LOTTE Chemical. After the explosion, the fire authorities dispatched all available manpower and equipment from the nearby fire department to deal with the fire. The accident injured 11 residents and workers, with no casualties. After the accident, the local government immediately sent a safety message to remind the residents to pay attention to the fact that there was no refuge order because it was not the leakage or occurrence of harmful chemicals.
The explosion mainly covered the naphtha cracker of the plant with the ethylene capacity of 1.1 million mt/a. Meanwhile, integrated downstream units of the cracker include 0.55 million mt/a propylene capacity and 0.15 million mt/a of butadiene capacity. According to SCI, the naphtha cracker has stopped production because of the explosion. It is predicted that LOTTE will stop the naphtha procurement for the cracker with the volume of around 3.5 million mt/a. South Korea’s naphtha crackers mainly use imported naphtha as feedstock. Therefore, Asia’s naphtha imports will be impacted by the explosion.
South Korea has the crude oil refining capacity of 166 million mt/a, and the ethylene capacity of 10.09 million mt/a. The largest refinery of South Korea was the plant of SK Energy in Ulsan with CDU’s capacity of 42 million mt/a. LOTTE Chemical has the largest ethylene capacity of South Korea, including the 1.25 million mt/a ethylene unit in Daesan and the 1.2 million mt/a unit in Yeosu.
