Total says Donges refinery onstream after turnaround

Nearly all units at Total's 231,000-barrel-per-day Donges refinery in eastern France are back up and operating normally after a rolling maintenance shutdown progra-mme, a company spokes-woman said yesterday.

The resumption meant the French oil major, Europe's biggest refiner, now had all of its refineries operational after turnarounds and strike disruption over the past couple of months.

Only one unit at Donges, the refinery's 5,000-bpd alkylation unit that makes the alkylate feedstock used in unleaded gasoline production, was still down, and would remain so for a few weeks.

"Some units were in maintenance, but the maintenance is finished and operations have resumed," a spokeswoman said. "Only one unit is still in maintenance for a few weeks; otherwise the refinery is functioning normally."

The shutdown programme at Donges began in mid-September and was due for completion this month.

Total said earlier this week that its 223,000-bpd Lindsey Oil Refinery in Immingham, northeast England, had completed its partial turnaround since mid-September and should be at full capacity by mid-November.

Total confirmed in October that it had a resolved a labour dispute at Immingham and said the maintenance had been extended to November.

The delay coincided with a strike that shut down Total's 328,000-bpd Gonfreville refinery, its largest plant in France, for around a month when world fuel supplies were strained by hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gonfreville was restarted on October 22, a day after the strike was resolved, and was fully operational about a week later.