For those of you with balconies facing Queensway, you'll see the eerie orange glow in the sky sometimes at night.. For those who can see southwards, you'll see this fiery flame bursting out high into the night sky, like something right out of the Bladerunner movie.
It's a chimney 'flaring' up from the Shell refinery at Pulau Bukom!! Can you imagine how high this flare is, if we can see it from here...?
According to the Wild Shores of Singapore blog, Shell has put up some information on this:
During final preparations for start-up, flames will be visible at the top of the petrochemical plant’s chimneys. These are commonly referred to in the industry as “flares” and are a safe and routine part of commissioning a new unit, such as a cracker. The flares are likely to be seen from the last few days of February to early-March.
Simon Lam, Venture Director of SEPC, explains: “Flares at refineries and chemical plants are a normal and vital part of keeping facilities running safely during start-up, unplanned operational interruptions or scheduled maintenance activities. Members of the public need not be concerned as carbon dioxide, water, and occasionally some soot are almost the only substances produced. They are not hazardous. Shell takes flares seriously and aggressively manages them at our sites, aiming for zero routine flaring.”
Yet, the eco-conscious folks of the blog point out the damage that gas flaring can cause to the environment. It's not hard to see why, when you see the amount of smoke surrounding chimney at night, after several hours of flaring!
You can read more about it here (Link to Wild Shores of Singapore, with lots of pics of the flaring from various southern isles).
Wear a mask folks, or close your windows and doors at night!
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