the toxic truth - Greenpeace

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the toxic truth How tHe waste was created In late 2005 Trafigura decided to buy large amounts of unrefined petroleum called coker naphtha from PMI Trading Ltd, which is the commercial arm of Mexico’s stateowned petroleum company, PEMEX. Trafigura intended to use the coker naphtha as a cheap blendstock for fuels. 36 A series of internal Trafigura emails, disclosed during a UK court action in 2009, revealed that the company expected to make a large profit from the deal: 16:54, 27 December 2005, email from an employee in the London office to several Trafigura executives: “ [T]his is as cheap as anyone can imagine 37 and should make serious dollar. ” 23:24. 27 December 2005, email from an employee in London to Trafigura’s chairman, Claude Dauphin: “ FYI- following your lateral thought about cleaning the PMI origin high Mercaptan Sulphur material and paying a disposal company to take the waste away. We will make it happen. PMI showing us more barrels Super Cheap now. Just have to make them more compatible for 38 gasoline blending. ” Mexico’s state-owned petroleum company PEMEX who provided the coker naphtha that Trafigura bought. © ANP/CArlos s. PereyrA 09:30, 28 December 2005, email from an employee in the London office to another Trafigura employee: “ Claude owns a waste disposal company and wants us to be creative. Graham has worries that it will all turn black. Me and Leon want it cos each cargo should make 7m!! [7 million]. ” 39 The coker naphtha offered for sale by PMI contained high levels of mercaptan sulphur; 40 one of the reasons they were selling it so cheaply was because they did not have the capacity to refine it. In order to sell it, Trafigura needed to find a way of refining it. Company executives had identified two processes by which the coker naphtha could be refined: one called mercaptan oxidation (known as the “Merox process”), and another known as “caustic washing”. Both processes involve mixing caustic soda with the coker naphtha to capture the mercaptans (which creates a waste by-product). The Merox process includes a crucial second step whereby the waste is transformed into stable, and less harmful, disulphides through oxidation. This additional step is normally under- taken in a specialized facility. Trafigura considered establishing a facility to carry out a Merox-style process. One Trafigura executive noted that this option “would not be cheap, but it would work”. 41 25 Chapter 2
26 Amnesty internAtionAl And greenpeAce netherlAnds Chapter 2 S 16 sulphur 32.065 However, for reasons that are not clear , Trafigura decided not to proceed with the Merox process but instead to undertake caustic washing. This is something the company had been considering since at least the end of 2005. An email between Trafigura executives, dated 27 December 2005, stated: “ We need to list locations that allow caustic washing – if… hadn’t informed us we would [sic] still wouldn’t know about it- as I don’t think we have scratched the surface of caustic washing 42 yet. ” Trafigura was well aware that this process would produce toxic waste. This is clear from the company’s internal emails, one of which referred explicitly to the fact that, “US/ Singapore and European terminals no longer allow the use of caustic soda washes since local environmental agencies do not allow disposal of the toxic caustic after treatment.” 43 “ US/Singapore and European terminals no longer allow the use of caustic soda washes since local environmental agencies do not allow disposal of the toxic caustic after treatment. ” TraFIGUra tHe significance of sulpHur content: a cHeap and dirty gasoline One of the key factors in determining the price of oil is its sulphur content, particularly for gasoline or petrol used in cars. The sulphur content of gasoline is regulated to protect the environment and human health. Only very low sulphur gasoline can be sold at the pump in the EU and North America, though gas or petrol with much higher sulphur content is often sold in many developing countries. 46 Coker naphtha contains far higher levels of sulphur than conventional fuels. For example, gasoline or petrol and gasoil/diesel sold in the EU has to have a sulphur content below 10 parts per million (ppm). Coker naphtha can have a sulphur content of several thousand ppm (1,000-3,000 is a range commonly reported). In an internal email, dated 28 December 2005, sent to colleagues and Trafigura’s chairman, Claude Dauphin, a London-based employee noted that: “ This operation [caustic washing] is no longer allowed in EU/US and Singapore. Caustic washes are banned by most countries due to the hazardous nature of the waste (mercaptans, phenols, smell) and suppliers of caustic are unwilling to dispose of the waste since there are not many facilities remaining in the market. There is a company in rotterdam that burns such waste in a high stack chimney and charges are approx $200/kg and could have upto [sic] 1000kgs of sludge after a treatment operation. Under EU law you [are] no longer allowed to transport such waste across EU borders. ” 44 Despite Trafigura’s significant international profile, it was able to identify only two companies worldwide willing to undertake the caustic washing process. According to an email sent by Trafigura’s London office on 28 December 2005: “ I have approached all our storage terminals with the possibility of caustic washing and only Vopak [at] Fujairah and Tankmed [at] La Skhirra 45 our [sic] willing to entertain the idea. ” So, while senior Trafigura executives were clear that they wanted to buy the coker naphtha because of the substantial profit it would bring, they were also aware right from the start that it would be difficult, firstly to find a facility to carry out the cheaper refining process, and secondly to find a company to dispose of the resulting waste.
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