THE Fife Ethylene Plant has shut down for a month.

ExxonMobil Chemical Ltd informed the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) of their decision yesterday (Thursday).

A multi-agency meeting including SEPA, Fife Council, NHS Fife, Health Protection Scotland, Police Scotland and other revelant bodies met during the afternoon.

The plant at Mossmorran ran out of steam earlier this week after two out of the three boilers failed and the "significant process outage" meant they could not continue with their normal operations.

A community statement issued by the firm yesterday said: "Our team has now safely completed the temporary shut-down of our operation. We are no longer in our elevated flare.

"The steps implemented ensured that this process was completed without any reportable smoky flaring. We will provide further updates to you as our maintenance work advances."

And now it has been announced that will be shut for "circa four weeks" as "remedial maintenance" is carried out.

SEPA has continued its deployment of air quality and noise monitoring at locations in Lochgelly, Auchtertool and Donibristle for public reassurance.

SEPA confirmed on Thursday they will fully investigate the current flaring incident and SEPA will issue an update on its ongoing regulatory investigation into the incident earlier this year, with clear timelines for completion of that investigation.

In addition, today SEPA will give directions to the company on its ‘Best Available Techniques’ (BAT) Assessment.

This will be followed by a significant announcement next week which will drive flaring mitigation investment at the facility.