Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical has started maintenance work before schedule at its 190,000 mt/year MTBE plant at Mailiao, which was shut along with other units at the complex after last weekend's fire, a company source said Wednesday.
The MTBE plant was scheduled to undergo a 25-day turnaround over August 11-September 4, but as the plant had to be shut after the fire, the maintenance work started early.
No restart date has been confirmed yet, said the source, adding that the plant would be able to restart only after the refinery restarts. The MTBE plant gets its C4 feedstock from the refinery.
The 540,000 b/d refinery at Mailiao suspended operations at all units after a July 30 fire at its propylene recovery unit.
The MTBE plant uses around 10,000 mt/month of methanol feedstock.
