CPC Plans to Restart Two Kaohsiung Refinery Units

By Yu-huay Sun

Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- CPC Corp., Taiwan's state-owned oil refiner, plans to restart two units at its Kaohsiung refinery this month after closing them because of a fire in January.

The company has completed the repairs and is awaiting the Kaohsiung city government's approval to resume production, S. H. Chu, CPC's vice president, said by telephone in Taipei today.

Restarting the vacuum gasoil unit and the fluid catalytic cracker will help increase production of gasoline and diesel, Chu said. Each of the units can process 25,000 barrels of fuel a day. A gas leak triggered an explosion at the gasoil unit on Jan. 5.

``We will restart the units as soon as we receive the city government's notification,'' Chu said.

CPC's three refineries -- Kaohsiung and Talin in Kaohsiung City and Taoyuan -- have a combined capacity of 720,000 barrels of crude oil a day. A fluid catalytic cracker produces gasoline while a vacuum gasoil unit provides raw material for the cracker.

To contact the reporter on the story: Yu-huay Sun in Taipei ysun7@bloomberg.net