No elevated flaring at Mossmorran over Christmas holidays says Exxon – Auto Republish

People living around Mossmorran have been assured there will be no elevated flaring over the Christmas holidays.

There were fears that disruptive flaring could ruin the festive season for local communities if ExxonMobil Chemical was to restart Fife Ethylene Plant over the Christmas and New Year fortnight.

But plant manager Jacob McAlister said the gas plant will not restart before January.

Fife Ethylene Plant was shut down in August due to the failure of two boilers.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Mr McAlister said: “I can today confirm that the safe restart of our operations will not commence until a date into the new year.

“We are currently revising our initial commissioning work and restart schedule but can confirm that the main phase will now begin some time in January.

“This will mean that there will be no elevated flaring from Fife Ethylene Plant in the coming weeks, merely the small amount of vapour that has been running through our flue since we shut down our operation.”

He also said that details of the revised restart timetable would be shared as soon as it is available.

Noise, light and vibration from elevated flaring can cause severe disruption to those who live near the plant, by Cowdenbeath.

Fife’s Green MSP Mark Ruskell added: “I’m pleased the plant operators have finally listened to local concerns, and are now providing regular updates to the community.

“This needs to be the bench mark for communication going forward, and I hope they will continue to be open about the restart process.”