Electrical
fault shuts down refinery
Production at the Chevron oil refinery at Pembroke has stopped
because of a mechanical fault.
A Chevron spokesman said repairs are being carried out after the
problem with a boiler on Tuesday night.
No fuel is being produced but there is a "good supply" of stocks of
oil, which is exported to the US and Europe, as well as
serving the UK.
The refinery, which first opened in 1964 and employs 1,200,
processes 220,000 barrels of crude oil a day.
A spokesman said: "Chevron can confirm that at around 2000 (BST) on
29 April, an electrical fault occurred in the steam
plant at the company's refinery in Pembrokeshire.
"The steam plant was shutdown in a controlled manner, following
carefully rehearsed procedures for dealing with such
situations.
"Subsequently, other units have also been depressurised meaning
that there is currently no production at the site. An
investigation is now underway to find out how the fault
occurred."
He said work had progressed well on repairing the fault and some
systems will be restarted later today, with others
following in the next few days.
He added: "We have a good supply of stocks at our refinery and
terminals and together with additional supplies that we
have sourced, we are continuing to meet contract
requirements to our UK and Ireland customers."
The refinery is the fourth largest in the UK, with just under 12%
of the UK's overall refining capacity.
The Environment Agency confirmed the refinery had shut down part of
the production process late on Tuesday.
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