The first blast at TPC Group Inc.’s Port Neches facility Wednesday morning involved a processing unit, the company said in a statement. A second explosion about 12 hours later sent flames and debris high into the air. Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick declared a state of disaster.

 The facility about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Houston produces more than 16% of North America’s butadiene, used to make rubber, and 12% of gasoline additive methyl tert-butyl ether, or MTBE, according to data provider ICIS. Bonds in closely held TPC fell as much as 8% on the news, making them the worst performer among junk-rated securities.

 The blasts at Port Neches follow a string of similar accidents in Texas this year. An explosion at a chemical plant northeast of Houston in March left one person dead, just two weeks after a blaze at an oil storage facility caused thousands of gallons of petrochemicals to flow into Houston’s shipping channel. Exxon Mobil Corp.’s suburban Houston refining and chemicals complex erupted in flames in July.

 The Jefferson County evacuation order issued late on Wednesday covered a radius of 4 miles that included parts of Port Neches, Groves, Nederland and Port Arthur.

“I don’t think the focus is on putting the fire out, but letting the materials in there burn themselves out and keeping the surrounding tanks cooled with the water being sprayed,” Judge Branick said at a press conference.Here’s another look at the latest explosion that happened about 2 p.m. at the scene of a fire that has been burning since about 1 a.m.this morning. Officials say that ALL firefighters have been accounted for.

TPC said the initial blast injured two employees and one contractor. All three have since been treated and released from medical facilities, Troy Monk, director of health, safety and security at TPC, said at a press conference Wednesday.

“You don’t want to be downwind of this,” Monk said. He couldn’t say when the fires would be extinguished, saying the main goal was “fire suppression.”

Total SA’s Port Arthur refinery hasn’t been affected by the chemical plant fire, a company spokeswoman said in an email. BASF SE’s steam cracker in Port Arthur and Exxon’s Beaumont refinery also weren’t affected, according to representatives for the companies.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc shut the Nederland station on its Zydeco oil pipeline, which pumps crude oil from the Houston area to refineries in Louisiana, a company spokesman said by email.

TPC was taken private in a $706 million deal in 2012 by private equity firms First Reserve Corp. and SK Capital Partners, which staved off a rival bid from fuel additives maker Innospec Inc. that was backed by Blackstone Group. The company, formerly known as Texas Petrochemicals Inc., competes with LyondellBasell Industries NV in the butadiene market and is run by former Lyondell senior executive Ed Dineen.

“Our hearts go out to them as well,” Port Neches Mayor Glenn Johnson said of TPC at a press conference Wednesday. “We appreciate TPC,” he said twice.

Spot butadiene prices in the Gulf region are down 43% this year to 26 cents per pound, according to data from Polymerupdate.com. The decline is due to weak tire demand caused by the slump in global car sales, analysts at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. said in a note Wednesday. Lyondell, which also makes butadiene, may benefit if a significant outage at the TPC plant leads to an increase in prices, the analysts said.

Port Neches is a city of about 13,000, halfway between the refining centers of Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas. Located on the Neches River, the city has long been associated with oil refining and petrochemicals.

— With assistance by Michael Jeffers, Adam Cataldo, Stephen Cunningham, Sheela Tobben, Kriti Gupta, and Dan Murtaugh

Source:www.bloomberg.com/news