By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

NORCO – A fiery flaring of chemicals, accompanied by a large plume of black smoke, from the Shell/Motiva chemical plant in Norco over the weekend and this week was the result of a mechanical problem with one of the units at the refinery.

Mechanical issues within the plant’s Gas Olefins-1 unit caused the flaring, which began Friday afternoon, according to St. Charles Parish spokesperson Renee Simpson.

Flames from the flare and a tall plume of black smoke were visible from as far away as Metairie, about 25 miles from the refinery. The flaring continued until late Monday afternoon.

Shell Chemical and Motiva Enterprises share space at the Norco refinery, which is a joint venture of Shell Oil Co. and Saudi Arabia Refining Inc. Simpson said fence line monitoring at the facility conducted over the weekend by the Department of Environmental Quality showed no environmental impact to the community.

“Flares are safety devices that are designed to minimize the release of emissions into the environment during unit upsets or when preparing equipment for maintenance,” said Shell Norco spokeswoman Emily Oberton. “There was no danger to the community.”

The incident was similar to another malfunction at the plant last month, when a loss of function at a CO heater at the plant produced a similar fiery flair and smoke plume.

At the time of that flaring, which occurred May 9, the incident was reported to the federal Environmental Protection Agency by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental group that has been monitoring similar accidents at the Motiva refinery for several years.