Fire rages overnight at Taiwan’s CPC Dalin refinery

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–A fire that raged overnight at CPC Corp’s Dalin refinery in Kaohsiung, Taiwan was extinguished early Friday morning, with no casualties, a company spokesperson said.

The massive blaze erupted at the No 3 heavy oil desulphurisation plant of the CPC Dalin Refinery.

“The [No 3] plant was shut while all other plants are running normally,” CPC spokesperson Ray Chang told ICIS.

The fire broke out at 22:35 Taipei time (14:35 GMT) on 27 October during annual maintenance work at the plant, Taiwanese newspaper United Daily News (UDN) reported.

The fire department brought the fire under control after an hour, it said.

Benzene production at the site was not affected, a market source said. CPC has a 258,000 tonne/year benzene capacity at Dalin refinery, according to ICIS data.

(adds paragraph 6 on benzene production)

Additional reporting by Fanny Zhang, Jun Kai Heng and Angeline Soh