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A massive blast at an explosives factory in eastern China killed at least 13 people with another 20 missing and others buried in debris on May 21, State media reported. Another 19 people were injured in the explosion on Monday at a three-storey workshop owned by Poly Explosives (Jinan), a state-owned company in the eastern province of Shandong.  The company website said the factory manufactures 30,000 tonnes of industrial explosives annually. The force of the blast flung broken glass, smashed concrete and other debris as far as 200 metres, reports said. Walls in outlying buildings were flattened and glass shattered. A total of 34 people were inside the factory at the time of the blast and survivors were...

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Oil major BP has petitioned a US court regarding the company’s payouts stemming from its 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, accusing a judge of allowing “absurd” compensation claims. BP wants to halt payouts, amounting to millions of dollars, in what it calls “spurious” compensation claims to victims of the spill.   The incident was the largest marine oil spill in history, killing 11 rig workers and discharging some 4.9 million barrels via an uncontrolled leak for 87 days. The ensuing settlement between BP and the US Department of Justice in November of 2012 meant that the oil company pleaded guilty to 11 counts of manslaughter, as well as two misdemeanors and one felony count for lying to Congress....

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The chair of the UK Health and Safety Executive, Judith Hackitt CBE, has become the Institution of Chemical Engineers’ (IChemE) 73rd president. She became president at IChemE’s annual general meeting (AGM) on 20 May 2013, taking over from Russell Scott. Hackitt has been chair of the Health and Safety Executive since 2008 and is also a senior non-executive director of the Energy Saving Trust. She trained as a chemical engineer at Imperial College London in the 1970s and has held senior positions at the Chemical Industries Association (CIA), European Chemical Industries Council (CEFIC), Elementis PLC and Exxon Chemicals. She was awarded her CBE for services to health and safety in 2006. She is a Fellow of IChemE and also a Fellow...

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Nigeria LNG, Africa’s largest liquefied natural gas export terminal, said it had declared force majeure on exports following a leak in a supply pipeline owned by Shell Petroleum Development Company. Force majeure, a legal step that protects a company from liability when it cannot fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control, was declared on May 15. The declaration followed Shell’s shutdown of its Gbaran Ubie and Soku gas facilities after the pipeline leak. Gas supply to Nigeria LNG has been cut by as much as 50 percent by the Shell shutdown, according to Bloomberg, and the company is seeking mitigation measures. "The shutdown will be in place until the source of the leak is identified and necessary...

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