Shell Community Notice – Potential Use of Flare During Maintenance

Community Notice – Shell Fife NGL Plant

Potential use of flare during nearby maintenance work

Dear community members,

I would like to make residents and neighbours aware that flaring may be noticeable at times at Fife NGL for short periods during planned maintenance work due to be carried out at the neighbouring Fife Ethylene Plant (FEP) operated by ExxonMobil.

This is over an estimated period of 4-10 days from Sunday 3rd February;  we cannot be more specific than this. Shell UK has planned a significant reduction of capacity in the system that supplies the plants to allow for the FEP maintenance work to be done with as little flaring as possible.

We are prioritising the use of two less visible Fife NGL ground flares, which both plants have use of, over elevated flaring (via flare stack). If there is a need to use the Fife NGL elevated flare during this time, it should be a smaller flame due to the low amounts of throughput.

I can reassure you that flaring is an essential part of the plant’s safety systems, and we aim to minimise any disturbance. We have planned carefully for steady operations during the work.

Please contact us if you have any questions or comment. Our contact details are 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 Fife NGL plant 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 five unplanned 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.