Fife leaders under fire over Mossmorran explosion risk

Leaders of Fife Council have come under fire over safety warnings issued to the Mossmorran petrochemical plant, which is currently closed for repairs after a raft of emergency flaring incidents.

The chemical plant in Mossmorran, Fife, where flaring has fuelled concerns over an explosion. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

More than 1,400 people have complained about nuisance from noise, light, vibrations and emissions belching from the complex during unplanned flaring this year.

The plant was shut down last month in order to allow repairs to broken-down boilers after receiving final warnings from environmental watchdog Sepa.

At the end of May the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) served Exxon Mobil, the operator of the Fife Ethylene Plant, with an improvement notice.

It stated: “You have failed to take all measures necessary to prevent a major accident and to limit its consequences for human health and the environment”, and warned that an ongoing gas leak had “potential to rupture and could ignite, causing a jet fire or flash fire”.

Another notice, served in July, found the firm had “failed to take all measures necessary to reduce the risk from firebox explosion” in seven furnaces.

East Neuk councillor Linda Holt asked Fife Council co-leaders whether they were aware the energy giant had been served with a total of 10 improvement notices and two immediate prohibition notices by the HSE in the last four months and questioned whether local school pupils should have been permitted to visit the site on invitations from the company.

But Labour’s David Ross accused Ms Holt of spin.

He said: “While we do take these things seriously, I think there is also an issue of overstating some of these cases.”

He confirmed the council had looked into school visits to the site and had been assured the correct health and safety checks had been carried out and the visits were safe.

Joint leader David Alexander, from the SNP, also criticised “apocalyptic” reports of issues surrounding the plant.

ExxonMobil has this week announced it will invest en extra £140 million and create hundreds of new jobs at FEP in a bid to improve efficiency and reduce its impact .

Mr Alexander added: “I would suggest the authorities are doing their jobs – and it would help if people didn’t go over the top with their language.”

Stuart Neill, external affairs manager for ExxonMobil, said: “ExxonMobil has over 270 skilled employees and contractors working at Fife ethylene plant each day.

“Our safety record speaks for itself. In over 30 years of operations, the Fife ethylene plant has never experienced a major incident and it is over a quarter of a century since any member of staff at the plant experienced a loss-time injury.

“Not only does ExxonMobil operate within a highly regulated industry, we operate to the very highest safety and risk management standards.

“In June this year, we openly communicated that we had identified a pinhole leak in a low pressure pipe used to inject an additive into our furnaces. We immediately undertook a risk assessment in accordance with our strict protocols, which concluded that it could be safely monitored and managed while we worked on an engineering solution – which we executed safely.

“In relation to our furnaces, we already have robust risk management processes in place but, working with the HSE, we have identified further risk reductions actions and are actively progressing these with them.”

Mr Neill added: “We support calls for a more balanced view and an end to over-statement. We understand that Cllr Linda Holt is a board member of a group that is actively campaigning for the closure of the Mossmorran site, which would affect hundreds of skilled, well-paid jobs in the local Fife economy.”