Total to Start Unit at Port Arthur Oil Refinery Later Today

By Nidaa Bakhsh

Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Total SA, Europe's third-largest oil company, will start a unit at its Port Arthur refinery in Texas later today following an ``economic'' shutdown.

The unit will restart around 8 a.m. local time today, resulting in flaring, or burning of chemicals into the air, according to a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The emissions event is expected to last until 2 p.m. tomorrow.

Total may flare up to 8,500 pounds of carbon monoxide from three different stacks, the Paris-based company said in the filing. The Port Arthur plant can process 240,000 barrels of oil a day, according to the U.S. Energy department.

Flares are safety devices that prevent pressure from building up within refinery processing units.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nidaa Bakhsh in London at nbakhsh@bloomberg.net