Shell prepares crude units for restart

Source

A man fills his car at a Shell garage in Glasgow, February 3, 2005.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc RDSa.L is preparing to restart the crude distillation units (CDUs) at its 318,000 bpd  joint-venture Deer Park, Texas refinery, said sources familiar with plant operations.

The restart of the 270,000-bpd DU-2 CDU and the 70,000-bpd DU-1 CDU between Sunday night and Monday, assuming no setbacks, will begin the restart of all other units at the refinery, the sources said.

A Shell spokesman did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Shell began preparing to restart the crude units on Saturday. The CDUs were shut by a pump seal failure on Feb. 14. Other units at the refinery were shut on Feb. 15 because of the effects of severe cold weather.

The Deer Park refinery is last to begin restarting following the severe cold that cascaded across the U.S. Gulf Coast in mid-February.

The Deer Park refinery is a 50-50 joint-venture between Shell and Mexico’s national oil company, Pemex PEMX.UL. Shell is the managing partner.