Unplanned Shutdown Scheduled for Total's Gonfreville Refinery

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The 331,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Gonfreville Refinery (Gonfreville, France), owned and operated by Total S.A. (NYSE:TOT) (Paris, France), is undergoing an unplanned turnaround on two main units.

On July 29, the 43,000-BBL/d Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit had to be shut down due to an unplanned boiler issue. The oil in process was supposed to start August 12; however, the company has decided to profit from the turnaround to perform a regular maintenance inspection, which needed to be performed before the next programmed shutdown, which is scheduled September 2012. The unit is expected to resume activities August 16.

Separately, the 145,000-BBL/d Crude Distillation Unit, was brought offline August 4 due to poor demand of oil products. Authorities have yet to decide whether the unit will restart at the end of the month; it will depend on economic issues.

The Gonfreville refinery is located in the city of Gonfreville in the Haute Normandie Region, in the northwest of France. Created and operated by Total SA, the complex is the largest refinery in France. Some of its main products are gas, LPG, naphtha, kerosene and fuel, solvent, bitumen and lubricants.

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