Shell shuts crude units in Singapore and Malaysia

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has shut around 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) of refining capacity in Singapore and Malaysia for regular maintenance at a time of healthy demand for motor fuels.

Shell Singapore brought down its second-largest crude distillation unit (CDU) at the Bukom Island refinery this week for a three-week maintenance, a refinery source said.

Refinery sources had told Reuters in early-May that the 115,000-130,000 barrels per day (bpd) No.4 CDU would be shut down, together with a gasoline-making platforming unit, for maintenance from early-June.

They had also said a hydrotreater, a unit that produces mainly ultra-low sulphur diesel and jet fuel, would start a one-month turnaround around June 24.

Shell's Singapore refinery has a total capacity of 500,000 bpd and has two other CDUs.

When contacted, a Shell Singapore spokeswoman said: "It is our policy not to discuss maintenance schedules.

"Equipment maintenance is planned well in advance, regularly reviewed and coordinated with our needs to supply customers and to keep our equipment running in a safe manner."

Shell had also shut its 125,000-bpd refinery at Port Dickson on Malaysia's west coast for regular maintenance, the company said on Wednesday. A refinery source said the shutdown started on June 17 and will be for 45 days.

While Shell Malaysia mostly supplies the domestic market, Shell's Singapore refinery is export-oriented and the maintenance work comes at a time when a demand spike for diesel from Australia has tightened the regional market.