Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Probe as residents woken by ‘terrifying’ unplanned flaring at Mossmorran

The Mossmorran petrochemical plant.
The Mossmorran petrochemical plant.

An investigation has been launched after angry residents were again woken as extreme flaring at Fife’s Mossmorran plant lit up the night sky.

Householders said they were terrified after loud rumbling from the petrochemical complex, near Cowdenbeath, caused their homes to vibrate in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Many said they had been kept awake since the flaring started at 3.40am as torrential rain battered the region, with one woman describing it as sounding like a plane passing low over her house.

The scene from Lochgelly.

Operator ExxonMobil has apologised and blamed the disturbance on an isolated trip in a machine.

Engineers are on site trying to resolve the issue.

A probe by environment watchdog Sepa has confirmed there has been a community noise impact but no breach of air quality standards.

It will continue to investigate whether there has been a breach of permit conditions and if any enforcement action is necessary.

The Exxon plant has been the subject of numerous complaints over many years, with residents sick of the disruption caused by bouts of flaring and rumbling.

The last incident was in August, when the plant suffered a power cut as Storm Francis raged and many have questioned its ability to cope with Scotland’s changing weather.

Mossmorran Action Group chairman James Glen said: “This is the second time during a severe storm that Mossmorran has had to resort to emergency flaring.

“Last time it was caused by flooding in an electrical storm. What is it this time?

“Once again Exxon is hiding behind a ‘process upset’ and local communities are left with the terrifying experience of emergency flaring in an unrestricted time frame.

“If the plant can’t cope with Scottish weather, should it be operating at all?”

Conservative councillor Darren Watt said the situation was unacceptable and accused ExxonMobil of doing nothing to alleviate residents’ safety fears.

“Once again, residents throughout the area are subjected to horrendous noise and light pollution because of yet another major operational failure by ExxonMobil,” he said.

“Local communities aren’t asking for much.

“They just want ExxonMobil to be a more responsible and considerate neighbour but continue to be let down resulting in further erosion of trust.”

Flaring is a safety mechanism used during a process upset.

Work on a £140 million investment to reduce the number of incidents at the plant, due to start this year, has been delayed until April due to the effects of coronavirus.

Sunday’s flaring comes days after the future of the plant was discussed in the Scottish Parliament.

An ExxonMobil spokesperson said: “Following an isolated trip on one of our machines, our systems have safely diverted production via our elevated flare.

“Our team of Engineers are onsite and actively working to resolve the matter.

“We have also taken actions to reduce the size of the elevated flare, including working to increase capacity in the ground flares.

“We stress that the use of our flare is completely safe, but apologise for any disturbance caused by its operation.”

ExxonMobil has already been referred to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service over a previous flaring event during Easter 2019.

Chris Dailly, Sepa’s head of environmental performance, said: “Whilst we don’t know yet from the company the cause of the latest flaring or expected duration, we will provide further updates as soon as further information becomes available.”

The watchdog urged anyone with concerns to contact its online pollution hotline at sepa.org.uk/report