Exxon Is Said to Shut Gasoline Unit at Fos Refinery for Repairs

By Nidaa Bakhsh

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest oil company, plans to shut a gasoline-making unit at the smaller of its two French refineries for repairs early next year, an official with knowledge of the work said.

A so-called fluid catalytic cracker at Fos on France's south coast will close in January for four weeks, the official said, declining to be identified because he isn't allowed to speak publicly about the work. Associated units will also be taken off line, he said.

Exxon's spokeswoman in Paris, Sylvie Sanders, said she isn't authorized to comment on plant shutdowns.


The FCC unit can handle 28,000 barrels of oil a day, about a quarter of the refinery's 119,000-barrel-a-day processing capacity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. FCCs process vacuum gasoil into higher-value gasoline or lighter crude products.

Gasoline for immediate loading in Amsterdam-Rotterdam- Antwerp, Europe's trading hub, soared to an all-time high of $1,192 a metric ton in July after refinery maintenance curtailed output and record oil prices boosted production costs for refiners. Spot gasoline has since declined to $663 a ton, Bloomberg data show.

Exxon has a 233,000-barrel-a-day refinery at Gravenchon in Normandy, northern France, according to the company's Web site. The two plants combined account for 20 percent of the country's fuel needs.

The Irving, Texas-based company will shut units including a 34,000-barrel-a-day FCC at Gravenchon in the first quarter of next year, an official said in January.

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