Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil refinery will resume production in the second half of August.
The company said in a statement on Wednesday after it shut most units at the 404,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) Pernis refinery in the Netherlands, following a power outage caused by a fire last Saturday.
“We expect to restart our operations at the earliest in the second half of August,” a spokesperson, adding, “we regret the impact this may cause for our customers, and we are doing everything we can to minimise impact.”
Shell suspended loading of oil products from the refinery after the fire, and reported a hydrogen fluoride leak on Monday evening.
Last week, Shell exceeded analyst expectations as its second-quarter profits surged by 245 per cent, in a bid to reshape its portfolio.
Traders are expecting their counterparts in Asia and the United States to send distillates to Europe to fill the gap, though, yesterday, just two new diesel cargoes were booked to sail from the U.S. Gulf to Europe.
Meanwhile, crude oil prices edged down Tuesday, following a week of straight gains that brought the global oil benchmark above $50 a barrel for the first time in two months, amid growing optimism that the market is tightening.
According to Wall Street Journal report, Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.61 percent to $52.40 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading down 0.38 percent at $49.98 a barrel.
Market analysts say the fall in price is due mainly to hedging on the outcome of the technical committee meeting of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, which is due to be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on 7-8 August 2017.
