(Adds company comment; detail on chemical plant unit affected)
HOUSTON, April 2 (Reuters) - A brief loss of power forced
Royal Dutch Shell Plc to shut the coker at its 225,300
barrel-per-day (bpd) Norco, Louisiana, refinery early on
Thursday, said sources familiar with plant operations.
Shell is working to restart the 25,000-bpd coker, which was
shut shortly after 1 a.m. CDT (0600 GMT) on Thursday.
Shell spokesman Ray Fisher said units in the refinery and
Shell's adjoining chemical plant were affected by the power
loss. He declined to say which units were affected at the Norco
complex.
The coker converts residual crude oil from distillation
units into feedstock for motor fuels or petroleum coke, a coal
substitute.
An olefins unit in the chemical plant was also affected by
the power loss, according to the sources.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba
Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Lisa Shumaker)