LONDON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The development of a new oilproduct storage facility on the site of the shuttered Corytonrefinery in eastern England has been paused with no newtimetable provided, the site's operator said on Thursday.
The Thames Oilport project, a joint venture of Royal DutchShell, Greenergy and Vopak aimed at storing mostlydiesel and gasoline, was originally planned to open at the endof 2013, but there have been repeated delays due to technicalproblems.
The plans now appear to have been put on ice as the partnersassess the costs of the conversion of the refinery, which wasclosed down in 2012 following the bankruptcy of its Swiss-basedowner Petroplus.
"Following further analysis of the condition of the existingrefinery infrastructure, a decision has been taken to pause thecurrent design works while a revised configuration and footprintis agreed," a spokesman for the project said in a statement.
"The timetable for Thames Oilport remains under review asthe three JV partners work together to consider the bestconfiguration and footprint."
According to sources involved in the project, located some45 kilometres (30 miles) east of London, the costs of the site'sconversion have risen over the past year. (Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Mark Potter)