text: 07 June 2012 05:09 [Source: ICIS news]
  SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Shell plans to shut down its 500,000 bbl/day refinery and its hydrocracker unit in ?xml:namespace>
  When asked about shutdown plans at the refinery, a Shell spokesperson said: “It is our policy not to discuss maintenance schedules.”
  The company’s production site in Bukom houses a mixed-feed cracker, with an 800,000 tonne/year ethylene capacity. The cracker has a 155,000 tonne/year butadiene (BD) extraction unit.
  “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,” the Shell spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.
  Market sources said that the cracker at the site will not be shut during the turnaround of the refinery.
  "The ethylene cracker will use the alternative feedstock, while the upstream is having turnaround," one of the sources said.
  The naphtha market may get a reprieve from oversupply when Shell’s refinery shuts next month, traders said.
  "Shell [is] a supplier of naphtha to the region. So with the shutdown of the CDU unit, this will give some relief for the oversupplied [naphtha] market now," a trader said.
  Additional reporting