A petrochemical titan has been hit with a £176,000 fine following six days of flaring that echoed the roar of a jet engine.
ExxonMobil Chemical Ltd faced this penalty at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on Tuesday after admitting to violations of its environmental permit at its Mossmorran site in Cowdenbeath, Fife. The breaches occurred over a continuous six-day period in April 2019.
The American company, which has employed over 300 individuals at the 40-year-old facility, confessed to not adhering to the smoke emission conditions outlined in its operating license.
The firm also conceded that between April 7 and 26 of that year, it inadequately followed procedures meant to minimize flaring risks, as stipulated by its permit requirements.
In its efforts to curb smoke emissions, the company inadvertently increased noise levels from flaring, violating pollution prevention and control regulations.
Local residents compared the sound to that of a jet engine or a massive blowtorch, with the bright chimney glow visible across 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.’
