Lubrizol Rouen Future

For more than 60 years, Lubrizol has been an active part of the Rouen and Normandy communities. Our work in Rouen provides more than 600 direct jobs and nearly 2,200 jobs when accounting for indirect jobs tied to the site.

With the permission of authorities, we will seek to resume partial operations through a safe and secure phased approach starting with the most basic blending operations.

90% of the Site is Completely Viable

Even though 90% of our site was not impacted by the fire, our entire Rouen site has stood idle since Sept. 26. These pictures were taken of the unimpacted portion of the site on Nov. 4, 2019. These areas are fully operational and ready for production.

All pictures taken Nov. 4, 2019

Employees, Local Community Relies on Lubrizol

A restart of the Lubrizol Rouen facility is required as soon as possible to ensure the thousands of employees, families, customers and suppliers who depend on our site continue to thrive. Each passing day means the economic viability of the Rouen site further declines.

Rouen First Responders
Lubrizol employees who served as first responders on Sept. 26.

Safe and Secure Restart

All restart operations would be completed safely and securely in conjunction with local authorities. All manufacturing areas are completely separated from the impacted area of the site by a new barrier wall. In addition a newly installed drum treatment tent allows safe cleaning of impacted drums in an odor-controlled environment completely separate from the manufacturing areas.

Barrier wall safely separating impacted areas from restart areas.
A drum treatment tent allows safe cleaning of impacted drums in an odor-controlled environment completely separate from the Lubrizol Rouen manufacturing areas.

Safety Measures

We have discussed this with the DREAL and will work together to define a restart plan to ensure safety and security.

  • Raw materials would only be shipped into Rouen based on near-term production schedules. Finished products will be moved off site via trucks to be drummed and stored outside of Rouen. This represents an 80% reduction in the amount of drums stored on our site.
  • We have built a physical wall to separate the manufacturing plant from the burned warehousing and drumming portion of the site.
  • We will continue to clean the burned area thoroughly and safely, consulting regularly with DREAL and the DIRECCTE.
  • We will continue to minimize odor by treating the impacted area, in regular consultation with the DREAL.
  • We have inspected and treated all vents and utilities.
  • We have tested and will continue to test the robust fire protection system in the blending area.
  • We will host a lessons-learned session with the fire brigade to share learnings and best practices moving forward.
  • We will have restart sessions with all Lubrizol employees who will return to work in this area.