Two employees of an independent contractor were killed in an explosion at French petrochemical producer Total's refinery at Antwerp, Belgium, on Nov. 19. The blast, which forced the shutdown of some - unspecified - production units, occurred during routine maintenance on a steam generation system in a gasoline production unit.

Total said fire did not break out, no hydrocarbons were released and the situation was quickly brought under control. The French group added that the steam cracker operated by subsidiary Fina Antwerp Olefins, with nameplate capacity for 1.5 million t of ethylene and 900,000 t/y of propylene, was unaffected.