SINGAPORE: Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical has stopped operations at its port at the Mailiao refinery as a precautionary measure following an earthquake, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
The company is expected to resume operations on Wednesday afternoon at around 15:00 local time (0700 GMT), one of the sources added.
There could be a delay of between one and two days for some fuel products discharging and loading from the port because of the tsunami warnings, one of the sources said, adding that exact timings will have to be monitored again as some vessels are scheduled to dock at the port on Thursday.
At least one fuel product vessel – Harrisburg – is waiting to berth at Mailiao port, Kpler shiptracking data showed.
Harrisburg is scheduled to load jet fuel and 500ppm sulphur gasoil in the next two days, the data showed.
One person has died and more than 50 were injured after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the island’s east coast.
Separately, two chemical tankers and one clean products tankers are currently berthed at Mailiao port, the data added.
On the crude oil front, there is unlikely to be any impact on arrivals since the refiner is scheduled to receive one Saudi-origin cargo on April 8, sources said.
FPCC operates a 540,000 barrels per day refinery at Yunlin county in western Taiwan.
FPCC could not be immediately reached for comment.
Meanwhile, state-owned refiner CPC Corp says it still investigating the impact of the quake on its refinery and port operations. – Reuters