A petro-chemical giant has been fined £176,000 for six days of flaring that sounded like a jet engine.
ExxonMobil Chemical Ltd was slapped with the penalty at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court yesterday (Tue) after pleading guilty to breaching its environmental permit over six continuous days at its site in Mossmorran, in Cowdenbeath, Fife, in April 2019.
The US-based firm which employs more than 300 people at the plant that has operated for 40 years admitted it had failed to comply with condition of its operating licence relating to smoke emissions.
It also admitted that on various occasions between April 7 and 26 that year, it had not followed its processes sufficiently to minimise the risk of flaring at the plant as required by its operating permit.
The company also prioritised the prevention of smoke emissions which resulted in elevated noise from flaring during the time frame in breach of pollution prevention and control regulations.
Residents described the noise as being ‘like a jet engine’ and ‘a giant blow torch’ with the bright glow from the chimney easily seen from around Fife and Edinburgh.
Prosecutor Iain Batho told the court one of the boilers at the Fife Ethylene Plant had stopped working on April 21 ‘meaning there was no longer sufficient steam balance and so the whole plant had to be shut down’.
He added: ‘In that scenario, it was inevitable that it would take around five days to get the plant up and running again and in the meantime it was essential to continuously flare until the plant became operational.’
Mossmorran gas plant, Cowdenbeath, Fife
The flaring could be heard and seen from nearby homes
It was accepted by the Crown that the firm’s culpability was ‘negligible’ with Mr Batho pointing out processes were in place but ‘not followed sufficiently’.
Sheriff James Williamson recalled the community had felt ‘considerable discomfort and anxiety’ over the period and added: ‘It caused quite a stir and caused extreme anxiety in the communities around the complex.’
The court was told that there has been significant investment at the plant since the incident including the construction of an enclosed ground flare and there has been no repetition of it in the years since.
Sheriff Williamson said it had taken ‘an extraordinary length of time’ to bring the case to court and fined the company £176,000.
Exxon Mobil is an American multi-national oil and gas corporation with its headquarters in Texas. It is the largest US-based oil and gas company and one of the world’s biggest firms.
Following the sentencing, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency said the conviction followed an ‘extensive regulatory investigation’ by the quango.
It had received more than 900 complaints over the flaring, the highest number ever for a single environmental event north of the Border.
Ross Haggart, SEPA’s chief operating officer for regulation, business and environment, said: ‘For nearly a week, communities around ExxonMobil Chemical Limited’s site were impacted by unacceptable and preventable flaring, causing noise and disruption on a scale that was simply intolerable.
‘The scale of complaints, the highest number ever received by SEPA for a single environmental event, illustrates how many people were impacted by the noise, described as “like a jet-engine” that disturbed sleep and caused fear and anxiety.
‘Our investigation found that ExxonMobil had processes in place that could have prevented this incident, but they were not followed to a high enough standard. Today’s result holds the company to account for these failures, and the serious impacts communities experienced.’
An ExxonMobil spokesman said: ‘We regret and apologise to local communities for the impact of the flaring event in 2019.
‘The flare system is our site’s ultimate safety mechanism and its use was vital to safely manage an unplanned shutdown of one of our operating units.
‘We recognise that community trust is earned and have invested over £250million to improve operational reliability and reduce the potential for flaring, including an enclosed ground flare, which has demonstrated in operation to be smokeless with no detectable noise or vibration.
‘Combined, these have helped to reduce elevated flaring by over 99 per cent compared to 2019.’
