Germany: Shell Says Repairs Caused by Fire at Godorf Refinery Unit to Take `Many Weeks'

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Germany: Shell Says Repairs Caused by Fire at Godorf Refinery Unit to Take `Many Weeks'

Shell Says Repairs to Godorf Refinery Unit to Take `Many Weeks'

London, April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch/Shell Group, the world's second-biggest publicly traded oil company, said repairs to a unit at its Godorf crude oil refinery in Germany, which was damaged by fire last month, will take several weeks.

The fire, in one of the two crude distillation units at the Cologne refinery, caused damage estimated at 10 million deutsche marks ($5 million), the company said. Two other units in the crude distilling unit have restarted following repairs.

The damaged parts of the crude distilling section were now being dismantled and replacements were due to arrive in the next six to eight weeks, Shell said. As a result, ``the crude distiller is expected to be down for many weeks to come,'' it said.

The refinery, Germany's fourth largest, has the capacity to refine 170,000 barrels of crude oil a day. About 20 percent of its output is used to make petrochemicals.

The company said it has maintained supplies of refined products to customers by increasing production at its other European refineries.

Shell, independent specialists and German authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire. There were no injuries.

Shares in Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. NV, representing 60 percent of the group, fell as much as 0.50 euro, or 0.8 percent, to 59.80 euros in Amsterdam. Shell Transportation & Trading Co. in London, which holds the remaining 40 percent, fell 5.75 pence, or 1.2 percent, to 489p.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/news2.cgi?T=energy_refout.ht&s=AOPXgLxZZU2hlbGwg

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), April 13, 2000


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