Shell cuts back CDU production, shuts coker at refinery
Royal Dutch Shell Plc cut back production on the crude distillation unit (CDU) and shut the coker at its 225,300-barrel-per-day (bpd) Norco refinery in Louisiana, sources familiar with the plant operations said.
Three workers were also injured on the same day after the release of hot condensate from the gasoline-producing residual catalytic cracking unit (RCCU) at the Norco refinery, the sources said late Wednesday.
It was unclear if the two events were related, the sources said.
Shell spokesman Ray Fisher declined to discuss the status of operations at the refinery.
The three contract workers were taken to a local hospital and are expected to recover completely, Fisher said.
Production at the 240,000-bpd DU-5 CDU was reduced to repair a leak, the sources said. The cut in CDU production stopped residual crude going to the 25,000-bpd coker and it had to be shut, the sources said.
The CDU does the primary refining of crude oil into feedstocks for all other production units at the refinery.
Cokers convert residual crude oil supplied by distillation units into feedstock for motor fuels or petroleum coke - a coal substitute.
Reporting by Erwin Seba, Editing by Tom Brown and Sherry Jacob-Phillips
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