BASF mourns colleagues following fatal explosion

BASF says it is gradually beginning to restart operations following an explosion and subsequent fire at its Ludwigshafen facility that killed three people.

The explosion occurred on October 17, 2016, at the North Harbor in Ludwigshafen. Two employees of BASF’s fire department and an employee of a tanker that was anchored in the harbor died in the accident.

Eight people were seriously injured, 22 others were slightly injured. One of the seriously injured has been released from hospital.

“We mourn two colleagues from the fire department and the seaman who died in the fire. Our deepest sympathy is with their families and friends. Many people were injured, some of them severely,” said Dr. Kurt Bock, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF at a press conference in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

“Our thoughts are with them and their families and friends. We hope that they are on the way to recovery.”

The course of events

The course of events is still being investigated by the public prosecutor’s office of Frankenthal. However, it is known that a few days prior to the accident, a specialised pipeline construction company began to conduct assembly works on a deflated and secured ethylene pipeline route.

The aim of the assembly works was to exchange several parts of the pipeline as a preventive maintenance measure. On October 17, a fire started at 11:30 a.m. near the assembly works. Forces of the BASF fire department, emergency service and environment protection arrived a few minutes later at the incident area and immediately started emergency operations.

During the initiation of emergency operations an explosion, most likely at the ethylene pipeline, occurred. The explosion led to subsequent fires at various points along the pipeline trench, damaging further product and supply pipelines. Additional emergency forces immediately began rescue measures as well as extinguishing and cooling measures.

“The emergency forces operated in an extreme situation. Their effort cannot be expressed in words,” said Margret Suckale, Member of the Board and Site Director of Ludwigshafen.

The fire brigade performed controlled burning of the leaking products in accordance with the fire-fighting concept for compressed gases. The pipelines that burned included those used for ethylene, propylene, a butylene product mix (raffinate), pyrolysis gasoline and ethylhexanol.

The emergency services extibguished the fire by 21:30 on 17th October.

Economic effects and next steps

BASF says that due to the fire, the raw material supply of the steamcrackers was halted; also other Verbund plants, especially in the ethylene and propylene value chains, were idled or production reduced. .

In the coming weeks the remaining plants will be gradually restarted. BASF is evaluating various measures to minimise the impact on customer deliveries.

BASF says it “immediately informed” the affected customers and is in close contact with them to keep them informed about the current availability of products.