Shell Australia refinery outage to last longer

A temporary shutdown of Royal Dutch Shell P.L.C’s Australia Clyde refinery will extend into 2009 due to ongoing maintenance work, a company spokesman said. The refinery in Sydney, which has a capacity of 85,000 barrels per day, was idled at the end of November for the maintenance, which was then expected to take about a month. The repairs were aimed to rectify problems that led to unplanned outages at the 82-year-old plant throughout the year. Shell has been importing fuels to meet customers’ orders since operations at the refinery were halted. (December 31, 2008)