LONDON, May 7 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell hasbegun the initial phase of restarting the Moerdijk petrochemicalcracker in the Netherlands that has been closed since October2014, according to the Dutch refinery website.
The company is cleaning the pipes at the unit withhigh-pressure steam, a process that it said will take roughlytwo months.
A Shell spokeswoman confirmed the cracker, which producesethylene, will resume operations in the third quarter this year,which is slightly earlier than some traders were expecting.
The unit has been offline since a utilities breakdown andcontamination of the steam system in October 2014.
Shell has been supplying its customers with products fromthe Porto Marghera refinery, owned by Versalis, thepetrochemical division of Italy's Eni.
Eni said the Porto Marghera cracker, which had been closedbefore the agreement with Shell as the refinery was converted toa biofuels complex, would continue running until October 2015. (Reporting by Libby George; editing by David Clarke)
