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The units at a Houston-area Shell refinery that caught fire this weekend repeatedly malfunctioned in recent years without recourse from Texas regulators.
Since the start of 2022, the British oil giant reported at least 4 malfunctions at one olefins unit in its Deer Park petrochemical refinery that had resulted in the thousands of pounds of illegal pollution but no fines or citations. Olefins units are at the heart of petrochemical complexes and separate hydrocarbons into the components of plastics.
