Taipei: Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemicals Corp will defer several export cargoes of gasoline and diesel from end-August and is in talks to delay several crude import parcels, after a fire forced the closure of its refinery, its spokesman said on Wednesday.
Formosa exports 210,000-240,000 tonnes of term and spot gasoline cargoes a month and has contracts with trading firms and Vietnam's state oil importer Petrolimex.
Privately run Formosa exports 800,000 tonnes of diesel a month, nearly four times the gasoline volumes.
The company is also in discussions with suppliers to delay the arrival of several crude oil import cargoes, or to waive taking delivery of some of the supplies.
Formosa imports an average of seven to eight Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) a month and 90 percent of the crude are from the Middle East.
Taiwan's Formosa Group also said on Wednesday it had set up a special team to ensure public safety after the fire closed its 540,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) giant refinery complex in Mailiao on Monday.
The management team, reeling from its third major incident this year, will look after safety at all the group's plants in Taiwan, local media reported.
The fire at a residue desulphurisation unit is expected to cost Formosa Petrochemicals T$500 million ($16 million) in losses, the firm had said.
The damaged desulphurisation unit may be shut for two to three months, county officials had said, but Formosa expects two-thirds of the refinery to restart within a week. [29/07/10]
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