HOUSTON, May 19 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc has asked California pollution regulators to approve a plan toshut the coking unit at the company's 156,400 barrel per day(bpd) San Francisco Bay-area refinery in Martinez, California.
"The Martinez refinery is in the preliminary stages ofconsidering a project to reduce greenhouse gases at the refineryby 15 percent," said Shell spokeswoman Destin Singleton. "Therefinery plans to shut down its Flexicoker unit and reconfigurethe refinery's reliance on heavy crude as a main feedstock."
A coking unit, like the Shell Martinez Flexicoker, increasesthe amount of refinable material obtained from a barrel of crudeand converts residual crude oil into petroleum coke, which issometimes used as a coal substitute.
Singleton said shutting the Flexicoker could result in areduction of 700,000 metric tons of greenhouses gases from beingreleased into the air. She said the company had not formallyapproved the plan. (Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
