UPDATE 1-S.Africa's Sapref, Engen refineries hit by storm

(Releads with Sapref refinery)

JOHANNESBURG, March 13 (Reuters) - BP Plc (BP.L) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) Plc said on Thursday their South African Sapref oil refinery, the largest in the country, had shut down after lighting hit the facility on Tuesday.

BP South Africa spokesman Sam Mupanemunda said boilers in the utility section of the 180,000 barrel-a-day refinery had tripped, automatically shutting down the facility in the port city of Durban on Wednesday.

Normal production was likely to resume by Sunday, he said.

"It was as a result of a lighting strike but the engineers are working on it and it should be fully operational by the weekend," he told Reuters.

"We are fairly confident that is going to happen because we have been checking the progress and it looks like the start-up procedures are going pretty well so we are very optimistic that by Sunday we will be back to normal production."

He said the company was facing shortages of petrol but had entered into arrangements with other companies to cover the supply gap. "We are not anticipating any shortfalls in the market for product."

South Africa's Engen ENGN.BT crude oil refinery, the country's second-largest, was also forced to cut capacity by 40 percent after a boiler unit was flooded in the same storm, a spokesman said on Thursday.

The 120,000 barrels a day refinery should be back at full production by Saturday after repairs, Engen spokesman Herb Payne said, adding he did not believe fuel supplies would be affected. (Reporting by Sue Thomas and Muchena Zigomo; editing by James Jukwey)