Shell shuts down hydrocracking unit at Pernis oil refinery

LONDON, June 18 (Reuters) - Shell closed a 56,300 barrel per day (bpd) hydrocracking unit at its Pernis oil refinery in the Netherlands on Tuesday June 18, consultancy Wood Mackenzie reported.

Wood Mackenzie also reported decreased activity on the 58,600 bpd vacuum distillation unit (VDU) during the morning of June 18, it said in its refinery intelligence report.

It was unclear why the hydrocracking unit closed and Shell declined to comment.

Diesel-producing hydrocracking units typically use high-sulphur vacuum gasoil (VGO) as a feedstock. High-sulphur VGO is usually produced in VDU units.

Shell recently performed maintenance on crude and gasoline units at Pernis, which is Europe's largest refinery, with nameplate crude distillation capacity of 400,000 bpd.