Pernis Refinery Shuttered for Weeks

A Royal Dutch Shell refinery in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, will remain closed until mid-August after a fire at the facility’s electricity stations caused it to shut down over the weekend, according to the owner company. The Pernis refinery will become functional again “at the earliest in the second half of August”, according to a recent statement, Oil Price reported. Pernis refines 400,000 barrels per day of oil, making it Europe’s largest refinery. The financial impact of the temporary closure is sure to be sizable, though Shell has not released any figures as yet. “We are doing everything we can to minimize impact to our customers,” the company said. Earlier, a Shell spokesperson told AFP that all units of the refinery had to be shut down because they are all interconnected. The effects of the outage spread to other areas soon after the short circuit.