Shell oil to begin Gulf of Mexico restart Thursday

NEW YORK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Shell Oil said on Wednesday that it will begin to restart offshore oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday.

The company also said it expects full restart of offshore production in the area will take three to five days, according to a company press release.

Shell said earlier on Wednesday it found no damage to major units at its 235,000-barrel-per-day joint venture Motiva oil refinery in Convent, Louisiana, though the restart of the plant depended on the restoration of reliable power supplies.

The company reiterated it could begin restarting some processing units at its 220,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery in Norco, Louisiana, in the "next couple of days" and added it is ramping up production rates at its 290,000 bpd joint venture Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. (Reporting by Richard Valdmanis)