Nederlands – Shell Restarts Europe’s Largest Refinery After Fire Causes 10-day Outage
Nederlands – Shell Restarts Europe’s Largest Refinery After Fire Causes 10-day Outage
On August 9, Royal Dutch Shell said it would begin the phased reintroduction of units at its 400,000 barrel per day Pernis oil refinery and petrochemical plant near Rotterdam, Europe’s largest refinery, after a fire in a power unit and subsequent hydrogen fluoride leak caused its shutdown on July 29. The company initially estimated the restart process would take two weeks.
The company said the restart operation was a complicated process given the refinery’s size – it has 60 separate units – and that individual units often trip in the process. Power will be provided from alternative sources throughout this process.
No production units were damaged by the fire but some catalysts will require replacing, oil industry sources said. No casualties were reported in the incident.
