More flaring caused by steam supply hitch at Sarnia plant: official

An interruption in steam supply is why Sarnia residents may notice more flaring this week at Diamond Petrochemicals Canada’s production site, the company says.

Diamond is the third company to post a notice on Sarnia-Lambton Alerts this week about increased flaring due to a third-party service interruption.

Diamond and INEOS Styrolution Canada posted notices Thursday morning; Suncor’s notice went up Tuesday.

“There’s no danger to the public,” said Diamond’s Craig Journeay.

“It’s just the utility supplier to us. They provide steam” and “had an interruption,” he said.

“We’ve taken action on our site to minimize the use of the flare until the steam is essentially restored.”

In its posting, the company said no action by the public is required.

“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to community members,” it said. “Notification to the appropriate agencies has also been provided.”

TransAlta provides steam to Diamond’s Sarnia site, Journeay said

“Steam is part of our process that we’ve lost temporarily, and we’re not the only one affected,” he said.

TransAlta’s natural gas-fired Sarnia facility produces power and steam for local industries. It also sells electricity to Ontario’s power grid.

“Earlier this week, we discovered an issue with some equipment at the facility,” a spokesperson for TransAlta said Friday by email.

“We worked with our customers to safely shut down the operations in order to facilitate repairs, which are well underway,” the spokesperson said. “We are focused on safely returning the Sarnia facility to production and expect steam supply to resume on Sunday.”

Diamond, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp., has operated its Sarnia plant since 2020, making a chemical used in synthetic rubber production.

INEOS’s production site on Sarnia’s Tashmoo Avenue produces styrene used in synthetic rubber and plastics.

Suncor’s Sarnia site, an 85,000-barrel-a-day refinery on St. Clair Parkway, uses mostly Western Canadian oil to make gasoline, kerosene, jet and diesel fuels, asphalt and petrochemical feedstock, the company’s website says.

Suncor said in its Tuesday posting that additional flaring was expected to continue this week until the third-party provider’s service could be restored.

The company declined to provide additional details.

“We do not provide real-time status updates on any of our operations,” a Suncor spokesperson said by email.

Industries say flaring, a safety measure used at refineries and petrochemical plants to burn off excess hydrocarbon gases, can occur during startup, shutdown or interruptions in the operation of production sites.

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