Community Notice – Shell Fife NGL Plant at Mossmorran

Wednesday 27 June, 2018

Dear community colleagues,

I would like to let you know of some work we plan to carry out on the Shell Fife NGL site, Mossmorran next week on Tuesday 3^rd July as part of a programme to replace the tip of a flare stack, and a small chance of a smoky flare. 

In the picture below you can see three flare stacks and tips on the Shell Fife NGL site. This is as they are seen on a TV screen in the plant Control Room, from where we monitor them 24/7. You can see two of the flare stacks from a different angle on the left of the picture of the plant above, taken late last year.

We operate the plant with two flares online, and a third as a spare to allow us to carry out maintenance. Over the last year, we have implemented a project to replace the middle tip. The new tip is a more modern design in line with changes in UK industry regulations. Once this tip is back in service, we plan to replace the left flare tip.

Next week we intend to service the middle flare before bringing it online and this involves an overhaul of its valves including a steam-control valve; a valve that regulates the steam that is injected into the flare. Steam is used to ensure the full combustion of the flare and minimise smoky flaring.

This work will improve steam injection efficiency in the longer term. However, it means we will not be able inject steam for approximately 12 hours while the work is carried out from 0700 on Tuesday 3^rd July, and so if we do need to flare during this time it is likely to be a smoky flare for a short period.

We have discussed this work with the approval of the regulator SEPA, and coordinated it with the neighbouring Fife Ethylene Plant to do our best to minimise any impact of the work on the community.

We will prioritise use of our two ground flares over use of our flare stacks, and we have planned carefully for steady operations during the work. This includes restricting activities that could increase the likelihood of using the flare. For example, we will hold off switching between duty and stand-by equipment during this period.

We anticipate that another short outage will be required after the valves have been replaced, and I intend to share a short follow-up communication about this.

I hope you find this advance notice and more detailed information about our maintenance and flares reassuring and helpful. Please share it with others who may be interested in your communities, and let us know if you have questions or comment. Our contact details are also on the plant website.

Kind Regards,

Plant Manager, Shell Fife NGL plant

Background – about the Shell-operated Fife NGL plant

·         The ‘Mossmorran complex’ includes two sites operated by two companies: the Shell-operated Fife NGL plant and the ExxonMobil-operated Fife Ethylene Plant.

·         The Shell Fife NGL plant is a critical piece of infrastructure in a system that transports, processes and distributes gas from the North Sea, helping meet industry and domestic power needs, and providing feedstock to manufacture a wide range of household products in Scotland and the UK. Total capacity at the plant is 12,500 tonnes per day.

·         The Shell Fife NGL plant employs more than 250 people, the majority of whom are local and help make us part of the community. We procure local goods and services, and support social investment programmes in nearby communities in Fife.

Background – about our flaring

·         Occasional elevated flaring is required to run the plant safely, acting like a safety valve when the plant cannot process properly. This is typically for hours rather than days, and we aim to notify the community in advance of any planned flaring, and as soon as we can for any unplanned events.

·         We aim to avoid and minimise flaring, which we recognise can be a significant inconvenience to neighbours in the local community. The Shell Fife NGL plant has had cause to notify the local community of six flaring events in the last three years. The average total amount flared at the plant is less than 0.1% of throughput.

·         We work hard to do the right thing, to avoid harm to people and to manage our impact on the environment. Although safety and the environment are more important, it is also not in the commercial interest of the plant to flare as the value of the products we process is lost when we flare.