### Orlen Unipetrol’s Litvínov Refinery and Petrochemical Operations Remain Offline Due to WWII Bomb Discovery
Orlen Unipetrol’s 5.4-million tonne/year (tpy) integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Litvínov, Czech Republic, remains without operations after the discovery of an unexploded aerial World War II bomb. This unexpected event has suspended all processing and production activities at the complex, which was previously unaffected by this type of disruption.
#### The Incident and Response
On August 21, excavation work in a remote part of the co-located Chempark Záluží petrochemical complex uncovered the unexploded bomb. In response, Orlen Unipetrol immediately initiated a safe shutdown of all production and energy units at the Litvínov refinery. This shutdown process was fully completed by August 22, as announced by the company in a series of statements issued between August 21 and 23.
#### Impact on Operations
The suspension of refining activities has led to a lack of feedstock availability for the site’s integrated petrochemical operations. Consequently, Orlen Unipetol also initiated a controlled shutdown of the Chempark Záluží ethylene plant’s 544,000-tpy steam cracker and started reducing operations at the site’s polymerization and other downstream units.
#### Force Majeure Declaration
Due to the extraordinary nature of this event, Orlen Unipetrol declared a force majeure on product supply from the integrated complex. The company cited the bomb’s discovery as an “extraordinary, unforeseen, and insurmountable obstacle” that makes it impossible to fulfill contractual obligations with business partners.
#### Post-Incident Procedures
The Czech Republic police and fire rescue services are coordinating with Orlen Unipetol to prepare areas for the bomb’s controlled deactivation, which is scheduled to occur on August 28,