Mossmorran: ExxonMobil says flaring has stopped

Flaring at the Mossmorran chemical plant has stopped, operator ExxonMobil has said.

More than 740 complaints have been made to environment protection officers since unplanned flaring began at the Fife Ethylene Plant at 03:30 on Sunday.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) said ExxonMobil should "recognise the depth of community anger" about the issue.

ExxonMobil apologised for the "frustration" caused to local people.

It said the incident was caused by a compressor fault and confirmed that the plant had returned to normal operations.

• Sepa receives over 380 complaints of plant flaring

• Environment officers probe chemical plant flaring

• Sepa seeks prosecution over chemical plant flaring

Plant manager Jacob McAlister said: "We will finalise our own investigation into the root cause but can confirm that, contrary to misinformation, weather was not a contributing factor.

"We absolutely understand and apologise for the frustration that the use of our flare can cause.

"We will, therefore, continue to work to reduce future occurrences."

This picture was taken from across the Firth in Edinburgh

Sepa said specialist officers investigated the impact of the flaring on the community during the episode.

Its four monitoring sites showed there was no breach of air quality standards.

Chris Dailly, head of environmental performance, said the agency was pleased flaring had stopped but was frustrated by its frequency and the "flow of information" from ExxonMobil.

"We've also clearly heard the impact flaring continues to have on local communities through over 740 reports to us since Sunday," he said.

"The evidence we are gathering will enable us to determine whether there has been a breach of the site's permit conditions and what our next steps should be in line with our published enforcement policy."

Mr Dailly said ExxonMobil needed to "step up and recognise the depth of community anger".

He said the company had to "make real progress in making flaring the exception rather than the routine - and we will employ all available measures to ensure they do so".

In May, Sepa confirmed it was seeking a prosecution following six days of flaring at the chemical works.