THE Fife Ethylene Plant has been getting back to normal today after its four days of production problems due to a faulty pump.

At 7.44pm last night (Wednesday) elevated flaring ceased at the ExxonMobil Chemical Plant at Mossmorran, as staff completed the process to re-commission the damaged pump and return to normal operations.

Sonia Bingham, Plant Manager at FEP for ExxonMobil Chemical, said: “My operations team at FEP has worked around the clock over the past four days to restore normal operations at the plant.

"I recognise that flaring can cause inconvenience and frustration to local residents, and we made every effort to minimise the size of the flare and any disturbance to the local community.”

She added: “I am grateful to local residents for their patience and understanding and apologise to those of our neighbours who may have been disturbed by this flaring event.

"I would like to assure everyone that we never flare unless strictly necessary and are working to minimise such occurrences. Flaring is an essential part of the plant’s safety systems, designed specifically to handle gas when there is an interruption to the production process.”

Ms Bingham assured that ExxonMobil Chemical will be conducting a thorough review into the root cause of the flaring event which started at the weekend.