Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical reopens Mailiao refinery port, restarts a crude unit after quake
(Reuters) - Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical restarted operations at the port at its Mailiao oil refinery after closing it as a precautionary measure following a powerful earthquake, a company spokesperson said on Wednesday.
FPCC has also restarted operations at a crude distillation unit (CDU) at Mailiao, company spokesperson K.Y. Lin said.
"There was no major impact on the refinery. One CDU tripped, and already resumed operation this afternoon," said Lin.
The port was closed as a precautionary measure, and it reopened at noon, Lin added, saying that "there will not be any shipping delay due to the earthquake that happened this morning."
FPCC operates three 180,000-barrels per day (bpd) crude distillation units at its Mailiao refinery, which is in Yunlin county in western Taiwan.
Four people died and more than 700 were injured after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the island's remote east coast, away from most of its power and oil infrastructure.
At least one fuel product vessel, the Harrisburg, is waiting to berth at Mailiao port, Kpler ship tracking data showed.
The Harrisburg is scheduled to load jet fuel and gasoil with a sulfur content of 500 parts per million in the next two days, the data showed.
Two chemical tankers and one clean products tankers are currently berthed at Mailiao port, the data showed.
On the crude oil front, the refiner is scheduled to receive one Saudi-origin cargo on April 8, sources said.
Seperately, state-owned refiner CPC Corp MOEATA.ULsaid it is still investigating the impact of the quake on its refinery and port operations.
Some operational and safety checks are ongoing at CPC Corp's Taoyuan refinery units given its proximity to the quake's epicenter, but so far crude runs have not been affected significantly, one source familiar with the matter said.
CPC Corp operates a 200,000-bpd refinery at Taoyuan in northern Taiwan and a 450,000-bpd refinery at Talin, in southwest Taiwan.
Refinery operations at the company's Talin site are unaffected so far, a second source said.
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