(Adds detail, context)
FRANKFURT, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell said
on Thursday it plans to shift its Shell Rheinland refinery at
Wesseling in Germany away from crude oil and towards low or zero
carbon products from 2025.
Shell has set a goal of net zero emissions by 2050 and is
under increased pressure after a Dutch court ruled it must
drastically deepen planned greenhouse gas cuts.
Under its transformation plans, the complex will become
Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rheinland, a venture focused on
renewable energy-derived hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuels
and renewable liquefied biogas (bio-LNG).
Wesseling is one of two sites that make up the Shell
Rheinland refinery complex and out of a total 340,000 barrels
per day capacity, it accounts for 150,000 bpd.
Godorf, the other site, will continue to distil crude oil
into mineral oil products under the plans, which have not yet
received a final investment decision (FID), Shell's German
business said in a statement.
The plants employ a total 3,000 people, of which half are
with Shell and the rest with contractor firms and Shell said it
would try and avoid redundancies as workers could be switched to
other jobs, retrained, or retired.
In July, Shell launched Europe's biggest hydrogen
electrolysis plant of 10 megawatts (MW) called Refhyne at
Wesseling to produce green fuels.
A final investment decision (FID) for scaling up the 10 MW
size to 100 MW has not yet been received but European Union
funding has been approved.
A power-to-liquid (ptl) plant for synthetic aviation fuel
and naptha from renewables and biomass at Wesseling is also
awaiting a final investment decision, while a bio-LNG plant at
Godorf has received one already.
Marco Richrath, General Manager of the Shell Energy and
Chemicals Park Rheinland, said on a call with reporters that he
intended to maintain the refinery's important role with a
completely new portfolio.
(Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff and Vera Eckert
Editing by Miranda Murray and Alexander Smith)
