Flaring is underway at Mossmorran as part of a £140 million upgrade.

Fife Ethylene Plant and Shell NGL Plant will both burn off excess gas this week as a major investment programme gets underway.

On Thursday, ExxonMobil began the preparations to stand down operations at their site.

In a community newsletter yesterday, plant manager Martin Burrell said: "I am writing to advise you that we remain on schedule to begin the main phase of the planned stand down of Fife Ethylene Plant tomorrow morning.

"This phase will require a limited period of elevated flaring.

"We are currently anticipating that we will exit our elevated flare by the end of April 12 (today) – with the size of the flare reducing relatively quickly during this time.

"We have taken a series of steps in advance of this phase to ensure we keep flaring to a minimum and reduce potential disruption to our local communities."

He added: "The use of our flare is planned, is part of its design and is completely safe. We have communicated widely to ensure communities are aware of the planned flaring, and have also explained why we need to use our flare during stand down.

"We thank our host communities for their patience while we complete this phase ahead of beginning our £140m plant upgrade, which we are confident will improve reliability and reduce the frequency of unplanned flaring."

Terry A’Hearn, SEPA CEO, said: “The work ExxonMobil is beginning marks an important milestone on the site’s pathway to compliance. We have been clear that flaring, while an important safety feature of industrial facilities, will become the exception rather than routine and new infrastructure will help address the issues that cause most disturbance to local people.

“The £140m upgrade, together with SEPA’s ongoing stringent regulatory requirements and permit variations, will significantly improve the reliability of the plant, reducing the requirement for flaring and significantly reducing the community impact of flaring when it does occur.”

Shell has also issued a community notice ahead of flaring at its Fife NGL plant. Craig Burnett, plant manager, said: “I recently let you know of work we’ll be undertaking at Fife NGL to carry out important, planned investment and maintenance on site, and planned use of the flares to achieve this.

“As I mentioned, a cycle of major investment comes around periodically that requires we shut down processing at the plant for a few weeks in coordination with the pipeline system from the North Sea including the St Fergus plant in Peterhead and the neighbouring Fife Ethylene Plant.

"The work we have planned at Fife NGL includes refurbishments and upgrades to the inlet to the Fife NGL plant from the main pipeline from St. Fergus, and its associated valves. Some of the work will be provided by around 60 contractors."

He added: “While simultaneous work and major investment at the Fife Ethylene Plant requires shared use of the ground flares on site, we plan to use the Fife NGL elevated flare for low volumes of ethane between April 11 and 15, and then the ground flares between April 15 and 18, as we shut down Fife NGL plant processing so that we can begin work safely."

Mr Burnett said they plan to "reintroduce volumes to the plant on May 6" and use the elevated flare for low volumes of ethane throughout the month.

He added: “We have taken steps to minimise the volume of product that must go to the flare and it will be a tiny volume of the reduced flow into the plant. Please be reassured this flaring will be carefully controlled by our operators and that there is no risk to the local community."