On 26 January, the explosion of an empty ethylene dichloride tank at a US site in Lake Charles, Louisiana, operated by US supplier Westlake (Houston, Texas; www.westlake.com) injured six maintenance subcontractors. According to media reports, the subsequent fire was quickly brought under control.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation, and Westlake did not respond to a Plasteurope.com query as of press time. It therefore remains unclear whether the explosion will have further consequences for production facilities at the site; according to information available so far, it appears there will be no impact.

Westlake operates various plants for ethylene and downstream products such as polyethylene in Lake Charles via its subsidiary OpCo. It also has a larger PVC production facility located around 200 km to the east in Plaquemine, which is supplied with EDC and other products from Lake Charles.

This was the second such incident in Lake Charles in the past four months: In late September 2021, several workers were injured when an explosion rocked the site during maintenance (see Plasteurope.com of 30.09.2021).