By Jarrett Renshaw
PHILADELPHIA, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Three of the largest U.S.oil refineries will be working to restore operations on Tuesdayafter a series of weekend glitches temporarily knocked out some1 million barrels per day (bpd) of processing capacity, theworse spate of outages in years.
A fourth plant, Husky Energy Inc's 155,000-bpdLima, Ohio, refinery, is not expected back online until the endof the week after a blast at its 25,000-bpd isocracker unit,which sources have said was extensively damaged.
The disruptions - which included three fires on Saturday andone shutdown late last week - affected about one-fifth of therefining capacity in the eastern half of the United States,fueling deeper losses in U.S. crude oil prices, but boostingprompt gasoline and diesel prices in the New York harbor.
Although there was no indication that the incidents werelinked, the East Coast was experiencing its coldest stretch ofthe winter at the time. Cold weather can sometimes complicateoperations at high-pressure refinery units.
Philadelphia Energy Solutions' 335,000-bpd refinery, thelargest on the East Coast, is due to restart its larger200,000-bpd crude unit on Tuesday after a utility systemfailure, according to a person familiar with operations. Theplant is also pressing ahead with maintenance at a handful ofsecondary units due to start in a week's time.
Marathon Petroleum Corp's 212,000-bpd Robinson,Illinois, refinery plans to restart by Tuesday after a fireshuttered its crude unit and vacuum distillation unit, a sourcesaid. It was unclear what had caused the fire.
Also in Illinois, BP Plc was restarting a90,000-bpd crude unit and a 60,000-bpd reformer at its Whitingplant on Monday after freezing weather caused them to shut onJan. 8, sources said. Restart plans over the weekend were alsodelayed by cold weather.
The largest crude unit at the refinery with a 240,000-bpdcapacity briefly cut back production over the weekend, butreturned to normal service Monday.
For physical crude oil markets, the outages may add topressure that has been steadily building for months. Theresponse in cash markets on Monday was muted as supply remainedabundant and most outages appeared set to be brief. (Additional reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston; Editing byJonathan Leff)