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By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc
completed the permanent shutdown of its 211,146 barrel-per-day
(bpd) Convent, Louisiana, refinery over the weekend, a company
spokesman said on Monday.
"I can confirm all Convent operating units are shut down as
of this weekend," said Shell spokesman Curtis Smith. "We will
now move to the decontamination and preservation phase which
will take a number of months."
Sources familiar with plant operations told Reuters on Dec.
3 that plans called for the refinery to be completely idled by
Sunday.
Shell has been unable to sell the refinery since putting it
on the auction block in July. The plant became unprofitable in
March as fuel demand was hammered in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shell said on Nov. 5 it would shut the refinery.
Layoffs of employees are expected to begin in the first
quarter of 2021 and continue into the third quarter of that
year, sources have told Reuters. Workers are needed to clean up
equipment and prepare it for mothballing, the sources said.
Shell plans to continue marketing the refinery, the sources
have said.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by David Gregorio)
