Community Notices and Contact

Community Notice - Shell Fife NGL Plant

Update on trial of flare-monitoring camera

Tuesday 3 March 2020

Dear community members,

I’m following up on my community notice issued yesterday (Monday 2 March) regarding work to trial an infrared flare-monitoring camera as part of our BAT (Best Available Techniques) recommendations.

I’m pleased to let you know that we successfully completed the camera test before noon today and we worked to ensure a low volume of flaring to minimise the impact on the community.

I would like to thank you for your understanding.

Our contact details are on the plant website in case you have any questions or comment.

Kind Regards,

Teresa Waddington

Plant Manager, Shell Fife NGL plant

Community Notice - Shell Fife NGL Plant

Notification of planned, short test of flare stack, and update on ground flare use

Monday 2 March 2020

Dear community members,

You may know that the Shell UK plant, one of two plants co-located on the Mossmorran site, has recently carried out a thorough assessment of Best Available Techniques (BAT) to minimise the impact of flaring, and has submitted plans to the regulator SEPA.

In preparation for a new elevated flare stack tip to be installed at our plant next year, we need to trial the use of an infrared flare-monitoring camera during flaring.

If the trial is successful, the camera will provide an accurate method of flare monitoring and steam control, reducing the potential for black smoke on rare occasions of high-pressure flaring.

For the trial, a short period of planned flaring will be required in our elevated flare stack during daylight hours on Tuesday 3 March. Our plan is to flare no longer than 30 minutes and at a low rate. This is not high volume flaring, and SEPA is aware of our activities.

We are committed to investing in and managing our operations to minimise both the frequency and impact of flaring. I hope this note helps you know what to expect, and that the information provided gives insight into why the flaring is taking place.

Also, following the safe re-start of the neighbouring Fife Ethylene Plant (FEP), I would like to let you know that it is no longer necessary for the Fife Natural Gas Liquids plant (Fife NGL) ground flares to be in continual use for excess ethane arriving at the plant, and our operation has returned to normal after an unusual period.

I would like to thank you for your patience during this time, and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or comment. We welcome feedback from the community and we will respond: our contact details are on the plant website.

Kind regards,

Teresa Waddington

Plant Manager, Shell Fife NGL plant

Planned maintenance and use of flare at Shell Fife NGL plant

Thursday, 9 August 2018

Dear Community members,

Next week we begin preparations for a planned ‘Turnaround’ at the Shell Fife NGL plant, which is when we purposefully reduce production operations over a few weeks to prioritise carrying out important, planned maintenance work.

This activity and investment takes place most years at this time of year and is part of running a well maintained site, as well as ensuring safe operations and the integrity and longevity of the plant as a vital piece of North Sea energy supply infrastructure.

As part of this activity, I would like to notify residents close to our operations in Fife of some planned use of the elevated flare intermittently for 48 hours from the morning of Tuesday 14^th August, and then again when we re-start the module from Friday 14^th September for 24 hours.

This planned use of our flares is to fullyremove hydrocarbons from one of our three modules to enable us to do thorough inspections and refurbishment. During this Turnaround, we will empty the pipes and vessels of Module 3 in order to be able to work on them. We push as much of the product out of the lines as possible via normal processing routes, and what remains is then sent to flare.

Please be reassured that we will take measures to minimise the impact, and there is no risk to the local community. We aim to manage operations so as to use our less visible ground flares and limit use of the elevated flare stack.

We have informed the regulator SEPA and the neighbouring ExxonMobil Fife Ethylene Plant.

I trust you appreciate the need for us to carry out important maintenance work periodically, and find the advance notice of use of the flare helpful to minimise any inconvenience it may cause. Thank you for your understanding.

Please let us know if you have questions or comment. Our contact details are also on the plant website.

Kind Regards,

Teresa Waddington

Plant Manager, Shell Fife NGL plant

Dear community colleagues

Thursday 12 July, 2018

I would like to make you aware of a civil penalty Shell U.K. Limited has paid for a past technical error at the Shell Fife NGL plant at Mossmorran. A metering error resulted in an inaccuracy in our annual reportable emissions under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) for the years 2013 to 2015.

Shell UK self-reported the error in our historical data to SEPA as soon as we identified it in March 2017. We investigated the cause, which was in the metering and data transfer of volumes of fuel used by a single propane unit at the plant.

We had under reported propane unit volumes by approximately 0.5% of total plant volumes for the period, and as a consequence not surrendered sufficient allowances to cover our annual reportable emissions from the installation under the ETS over the three year period.

We regret that this happened. Shell UK has since submitted revised data and surrendered allowances to correct the situation. The inadvertent reporting error had no impact on actual levels of carbon dioxide emitted by the plant.

SEPA has recognised our proactive notification, investigation and subsequent actions as mitigating factors in their determination of the £40,056 penalty.

Please share this with others in your communities who may be interested, and let us know if you have questions or comment. Our contact details are also on the plant website.

Kind Regards,

Teresa Waddington

Plant Manager, Shell Fife NGL plant

Dear community colleagues

Wednesday 27 June, 2018

I would like to let you know of some work we plan to carry out on the Shell Fife NGL site, Mossmorran next week on Tuesday 3^rd July as part of a programme to replace the tip of a flare stack, and a small chance of a smoky flare.

We operate the plant with two flares online, and a third as a spare to allow us to carry out maintenance. Over the last year, we have implemented a project to replace the middle tip. The new tip is a more modern design in line with changes in UK industry regulations. Once this tip is back in service, we plan to replace the left flare tip.

Next week we intend to service the middle flare before bringing it online and this involves an overhaul of its valves including a steam-control valve; a valve that regulates the steam that is injected into the flare. Steam is used to ensure the full combustion of the flare and minimise smoky flaring.

This work will improve steam injection efficiency in the longer term. However, it means we will not be able inject steam for approximately 12 hours while the work is carried out from 0700 on Tuesday 3^rd July, and so if we do need to flare during this time it is likely to be a smoky flare for a short period.

We have discussed this work with the approval of the regulator SEPA, and coordinated it with the neighbouring Fife Ethylene Plant to do our best to minimise any impact of the work on the community.

We will prioritise use of our two ground flares over use of our flare stacks, and we have planned carefully for steady operations during the work. This includes restricting activities that could increase the likelihood of using the flare. For example, we will hold off switching between duty and stand-by equipment during this period.

We anticipate that another short outage will be required after the valves have been replaced, and I intend to share a short follow-up communication about this.

I hope you find this advance notice and more detailed information about our maintenance and flares reassuring and helpful. Please share it with others who may be interested in your communities, and let us know if you have questions or comment. Our contact details are also on the plant website.

Kind Regards,

Teresa Waddington

Plant Manager, Shell Fife NGL plant

Community Day at Shell plant, Mossmorran

Tuesday 1 May, 2008

The Shell Fife NGL plant at Mossmorran will hold a Community Day on Saturday 16^th June, 2018.

Members of the local communities are invited to request to attend a morning session from 1000-1230hrs or an afternoon session from 1330-1600hrs.

Each session will consist of a briefing with the Shell Fife NGL Plant Manager, a tour of the site processing facilities by bus, including the operations control room, and conclude with a feedback session and refreshments.

If you are interested, please email your request to john.raine@shell.com with your Name, Address, Community Council, which session you would like to attend (Morning or Afternoon). It will be helpful if you can CC your community councillor.

Please note the number of visitors we can have on site is limited and so we propose to host a maximum of 80 people (aged 18 years or over) per session.

We will register people on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.

Thank you

Teresa Waddington

Shell Fife NGL Plant Manager

Community note from the Shell Fife NGL plant manager Teresa Waddington

Thursday 19 April 2018

Dear community members,

As you may be aware, the Shell UK Fife NGL plant at Mossmorran has received a final warning letter from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) with regard to our part in one of the flaring events last June.

We take compliance very seriously and we recognise that the unusual flaring events at the Mossmorran complex in June 2017 raised community concern around flaring and air quality. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused in the community by our part in the event.

In response, we have been cooperating with SEPA and working closely with our neighbours at the ExxonMobil-operated Fife Ethylene Plant on technical and operational measures that will help avoid the circumstances that led to the flaring last June.

We stepped up our engagement in the community last July to better understand concerns and share more information more widely about Shell UK plant operations within the Mossmorran complex. This work is ongoing with community groups and other parties to address the concerns raised.

I share some background information below for context of the plant’s role in energy supply and in the local economy, as well as our flaring activity.

Kind Regards,
Teresa Waddington

About the Shell-operated Fife NGL plant

The ‘Mossmorran complex’ includes two sites operated by two companies: the Shell-operated Fife NGL fractionation plant and the ExxonMobil-operated Fife Ethylene Plant.

The Shell Fife NGL fractionation plant is a critical piece of infrastructure in a system that transports, processes and distributes gas from the North Sea, helping meet industry and domestic power needs, and providing feedstock to manufacture a wide range of household products in Scotland and the UK. Total capacity at the plant is 12,500 tonnes per day.

The plant employs more than 250 people, the majority of whom are local and help make us part of the community. We procure local goods and services, and support social investment programmes in nearby communities in Fife.

About our flaring

Occasional use of an elevated flare is necessary to run the plant safely, acting like a safety valve when the plant cannot process properly. This is typically for hours rather than days, and we aim to notify the community in advance of any planned flaring, and as soon as we can for any unplanned events.

We aim to avoid and minimise flaring, which we recognise can be a significant inconvenience to neighbours in the local community. The Shell Fife NGL plant has had cause to notify the local community of six flaring events in the last three years. The average total amount flared at the Shell Fife NGL plant is less than 0.1% of throughput.

We work hard to do the right thing, to avoid harm to people and to manage our impact on the environment. Below our safety and environmental priorities, it is also not in our commercial interest to flare as the value of the products we process is lost when we flare.

SCDI Young Engineers Clubs – Dundee University

The event gives Young Engineers and Science Clubs from primary and secondary schools in the region the opportunity to showcase their activities, be judged for the Regional Club of the Year title (primary and secondary), share best practice and compete in a series of exciting, three-minute hands-on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) challenges set by companies. Around 100 young engineers, teachers and companies are expected to attend this action-packed day.

Shell is Lead Sponsor of SCDI Young Engineer Science Clubs. The purpose of the programme is to engage young people in practical, exciting, hands-on science and engineering activities and to enthuse them to pursue a career in science, engineering and technology. There are 800 science, engineering and technology clubs operating throughout Scotland, from Orkney to Dumfries with a membership of more than 12,000 girls and boys.

To find out more please click the following link: http://www.yecscotland.co.uk/

Shell Twilight Basketball

We have sessions running in Fife at Levenmouth, Dunfermline and Lochgelly on Friday nights.

Shell Twilight Basketball is a national programme which provides basketball sessions infused with education and life-skills. Sessions are free and are available for all 11-21 years old.

Community note from Shell Fife NGL Intermittent Flaring notice

Friday 23 February

Shell U.K. Limited (Shell) would like to inform the local community that a processing module at the Shell Fife NGL Plant was shut down today to carry out immediate maintenance work. Between the hours of 1100hrs – 1430hrs (February 23) local residents may have noticed a small amount of intermittent flaring from the elevated flare. We have informed the regulator, SEPA of the incident. The work is almost complete and the process to re-start the module will be begin in the next 24 hours.

Teresa Waddington, Plant Manager at Shell Fife NGL said: “We apologise to the local community for the flaring incident today. The flare is an essential part of the plant’s safety systems. I would like to assure residents that we aim to minimise any disturbance and the plant is now being returned to normal operations.”

Tomorrows Engineers

Shell has contributed over £1million to expand the Tomorrow’s Engineers programme throughout the UK. It reaches approximately 200 secondary schools across Scotland. Shell’s investment will give thousands more Scottish students, aged 11-14, hands-on engineering experiences, and help them explore the diverse range of opportunities that a technical career can provide.