TotalEnergies Restarts Petrochemical Units in Normandy Amid Technical Issues
TotalEnergies is resuming operations at its petrochemical site in Normandy, northern France, after experiencing technical issues in February. While the notice did not specify which units were being restarted, it mentioned that there may be noise and flaring episodes from Friday, Feb. 16 until Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, causing temporary disruptions.
Earlier this year, the 247,000 b/d Gonfreville-l'Orcher refinery at the petrochemical complex encountered a delay in its resumption of operations, pushing it into January instead of the planned restart in December. Now, the complex has faced additional challenges, including a steam cracker outage at the beginning of the month and problems with orthoxylene tanks, leading to storage and transport issues for the product. The orthoxylene supplied by this plant is crucial to European buyers.
The issues with the steam cracker are believed to be the reason behind TotalEnergies' recent purchase of over 10,000 metric tons of spot styrene. This move has caused market concerns about the availability of styrene, contributing to a surge in spot styrene prices. On Feb. 15, prices jumped by $222.50/mt to $1,505/mt. This increase has been exacerbated by the outages of U.S. styrene units, which have reportedly reduced domestic production capacity by 44%. The European market heavily relies on U.S. supplies of styrene.
The TotalEnergies Normandy platform consists of the 247,000 b/d Gonfreville refinery and a 200,000 b/d petrochemical plant. The company's efforts to overcome the technical challenges and restart various units are critical for ensuring the stable supply of petrochemical products to the European market.
Note: The above information is based on market sources and has not been independently verified.
Analyst comment
Neutral news. The restarting of units at the TotalEnergies petrochemical site in Normandy may cause noise and flaring episodes until Feb. 20, 2024. The recent technical issues and outages have led to concerns over styrene availability and a surge in spot styrene prices. TotalEnergies’ purchase of spot styrene and the U.S. styrene production capacity impact are contributing factors.
