(Adds company statement, details on units)
HOUSTON, April 8 (Reuters) - The crude distillation unit
(CDU) was operating at minimum production levels on Thursday
morning at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s 227,400
barrel-per-day Norco, Louisiana, refinery, said sources familiar
with plant operations.
Most of the other production units at the refinery remained
shut following a Wednesday afternoon loss of three steam boilers
at the refinery, the sources said.
On Thursday, Shell said it was working on plans to restart
units at the Norco refining and petrochemical complex after
stabilizing operations disrupted by the Wednesday failure of the
site's boilers. Shell did not specify which units were shut and
did not comment on what the sources said.
The 240,000-bpd DU-5 CDU continued to operate at reduced
production because other units could not accept the feedstocks
it produces from crude oil, the sources said.
The refinery's 112,000-bpd gasoline-producing residual
catalytic cracker (RCC) and 40,000-bpd hydrocracker were shut,
according to the sources.
Shell plans to begin restarting as soon as it can restore
steam supply, the sources said.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Toby Chopra)