Kuwait's EQUATE Petrochemical Company has been forced to shut one of its 550,000 metric tonnes per annum (mtpa) ethylene glycol (EG) plant in the Shuaiba Industrial Area due a fire accident that took place on Tuesday, a company spokesperson told DownstreamToday Thursday.

"The shutdown [will] last around six weeks. Production operations of the other units are unaffected and ongoing," the spokesperson said.

The fire, which resulted from a leak in a part of the manufacturing unit, was contained and extinguished on Tuesday, EQUATE said in a statement.

The EG plant affected is under the EQUATE joint venture. The JV includes Petrochemicals Industries Company (PIC) (42.5%), The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) (42.5%), Boubyan Petrochemical Company (BPC) (9%) and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Companies (QPIC) (6%).

EQUATE operates a second EG plant, under the Greater EQUATE JV, which has a production capacity of 600,000-mtpa. The second EG plant is producing at full capacity, the spokesperson said.