Shell Pernis Refinery Fire Under Control, Plant Still Operating

By Alexander Kwiatkowski and Eduard Gismatullin

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc said a fire continues to burn at its Pernis oil refinery in the Netherlands, Europe’s largest plant.

The fire broke out in a heavy diesel pipeline at the refinery near Rotterdam at 1:20 p.m. local time today, said Wim van de Wiel, a spokesman for Europe’s biggest oil company, based in The Hague.

The refinery is still operating and the fire, although still burning, was brought under control at 3:25 p.m. local time, he said. The Rotterdam fire department sent 40 firefighters to help contain the blaze.

“The pipeline has been blocked in and now the fire is under control,” the Shell spokesman said. “It was heavy diesel oil” that caught fire and no injuries have been reported, he said.

The refinery has been working to restore production at various units that were closed last month for maintenance and repairs. RTV Rijnmond reported earlier that the fire was in catalytic cracker Unit 2.

Shell’s Class A shares in London fell as much as 3.1 percent before recovering. They were up 2 pence at 1,677 pence at 4 p.m.

Pernis has a capacity of 416,000 barrels a day. The plant’s catalytic crackers can process 50,000 barrels of gasoline a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Shell closed one fluid catalytic cracking, or FCC, units at Pernis in September to repair a fault. That unit was scheduled to resume operations in late November after a two-month halt, a person familiar with the situation who declined to be identified, said on Nov. 20.

The refinery has also had to delay at least twice the restart of a crude distillation unit, two people familiar with shutdown procedures said previously. The crude unit was supposed to restart in late November as well.

Gasoline in Europe traded for $6.73 a barrel below crude oil as of about 1 p.m. in London, compared with a discount of $6.02 yesterday, according to broker PVM Oil Associates Ltd.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski in London at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.netEduard Gismatullin in London at egismatullin@bloomberg.net