Shell will try to restart this Friday one of the two crude distillation units at its 404,000-bpd Pernis refinery—the biggest refinery in Europe—after it was shuttered following a fire at the end of July, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, quoting a person familiar with the situation. The Pernis refinery in Rotterdam was shut down on July 31, after a short circuit caused a major fire. Last week, expectations were that the Pernis refinery would be closed for at least two weeks and resume operations “at the earliest in the second half of August.” Shortly after today’s report of the expected attempt at a restart of one of two crude distillation units, European diesel futures extended their drop in London at mid-day local time, as traders faced the realization that fuel may start flowing again sooner than expected, Bloomberg and ICE Futures Europe data showed. Immediately after the Shell refinery outage […]