Lightning strike hits Kerteh gas processing plant

A lightning strike has hit a gas processing plant in Kerteh operated by Malaysia's state-owned Petronas, causing a fire that took eight hours to bring under control

Cracker and downstream operations at Petronas' facilities at Kerteh remain unaffected after the incident yesterday, the company said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Gas processing units typically treat and purify feedstock used in petrochemical complexes.

Two crackers with a combined capacity of 1m t/y operate in Kerteh, according to Argus data.

Petronas subsidiaries currently operate two polyethylene (PE) plants in Kerteh, including a 255,000 t/y low-density PE (LDPE) plant and a 250,000 t/y linear low density PE (LLDPE)/high density PE (HDPE) swing plant.