What this setup is designed to avoid is a scenario where, during an incident, a rail car with flammable gasses would derail and catch fire and in turn would heat up the next rail car carrying flammable liquids and cause an explosion of that rail car, a so called warm BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion). This covenant is the logical extension of an agreement from 2010 between DSM and the Dutch authorities for the transport of dangerous goods from Chemelot.
SABIC was one of the early contributors to the covenant and AnQore entered into the agreement in 2018, after DSM sold part of its shares to CVC Capital Partners. That original covenant will remain in place till 31 December 2022 and has been very successful to date. Close to 98% of all Dutch rail transport is organized in line with the covenant and contributes significantly to improving rail safety in The Netherlands.
Recently the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management approached all signees of the 2010 covenant with the request to extend the duration with another 5 years. Both AnQore and SABIC reacted positive to this. The reason for both companies to be involved like this, is that BLEVE-risk trains could only be formed if rail cars carrying products from both companies would be combined: flammable gasses from SABIC (especially Butadiene and Crude C4) and flammable liquids from AnQore (Acrylonitrile and ACH).
Both companies underline that safe transport of dangerous goods is very important to them.