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(Updates with details from IIR Energy report, background)
NEW YORK, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Oil major BP Plc willdelay until July the restart of a 260,000 barrel per day crudedistillation unit at its Whiting, Indiana, refinery, moving thetarget from mid-April, IIR Energy reported on Thursday.
The discount of U.S. crude futures to internationalbenchmark brent widened more than $1 to over $21 a barrelfollowing news of the delay on expectations it would cause oilstockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma NYMEX delivery point toswell further.
The crude unit, known as Pipestill 12, had been expected torestart before May. The unit, along with a new delayed coker andother heavy oil conversion facilities, is an important piece ofa modernization project at the 410,000 bpd refinery that willincrease the amount of heavy oil it can process.
IIR Energy said BP should start up the 120,000 bpd delayedcoker and a 120,000 bpd gas oil hydrotreater in December.
Oil traders had expected Pipestill 12 to process crude oilsourced from Cushing until the new coking unit starts up.Inventories at the oil hub surged to record highs in January asrising volumes of crude from North Dakota and Canada flow intothe Midwest. (Editing by David Gregorio)
