(Adds response from company, background)
HOUSTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc
shut the gasoline-producing residual catalytic cracking unit
(RCCU) at its 227,400 barrel-per-day (bpd) Norco, Louisiana,
refinery on Friday, sources familiar with plant operations said
on Monday.
The 112,000 bpd RCCU, which converts residual crude oil into
unfinished gasoline, was shut to repair a leak, the sources
said.
A Shell spokesman did not have information immediately
available about operations at the Norco refinery on Monday
morning.
The RCCU repairs led Shell to issue a notice to nearby
residents on Thursday that the Norco refinery and chemical plant
complex would using the safety flare system because of
maintenance on a unidentified unit.
Safety flares are used to burn off hydrocarbons that cannot
be processed normally because of unit shutdowns or startups.
The RCCU, unlike the more common fluidic catalytic cracker
(FCC), uses residual crude oil from distillation units to make
unfinished gasoline. FCCUs use gas oil as their feedstock.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba, editing by Louise Heavens and Chizu
Nomiyama)
