(Adds company no comment, background on shutdown, refinery)
HOUSTON, March 12 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc
plans to begin restarting the crude distillation units (CDUs) at
its 318,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Deer Park, Texas, refinery on
Saturday, said sources familiar with plant operations.
Shell plans to restart the other production units at the
refinery next week after bringing the 270,000-bpd DU-2 CDU and
the 70,000-bpd DU-1 CDU back into operation, the sources said on
Friday.
Shell spokesman Curtis Smith declined on Friday to comment.
The crude units were shut on Feb. 14 because of a pump seal
failure, the sources said.
The Deer Park refinery is a 50-50 joint-venture between
Shell and Mexico's national oil company Pemex. Shell
is the managing partner.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Leslie Adler)