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Bloomberg: Shell Says `Tripped’ Coker Unit at Deer Park Causes Flaring

By Trisha Huang

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, said it has cut supply of raw material to the coker unit at its Deer Park, Texas, refinery after the unit malfunctioned, resulting in flaring of gases.

The coker unit “tripped” after the anti-surge valve opened, Shell said in a filing to the Texas Natural Resource Conversation Commission. Shell reduced raw material supply to the unit in order to stabilize operations and curb flaring, the refiner said.

The unplanned unit shutdown resulted in emissions of more than 1,000 pounds of carbon monoxide and more than 35,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide into the air, Shell said in the filing to the state air quality regulator. Other gases including nitrogen oxide and propane were also flared, according to the filing.

The Deer Park refining and petrochemical complex, which is capable of processing 340,000 barrels of oil daily, is the sixth-largest refinery in the U.S., according to Shell’s Web site.

To contact the reporter on this story: Trisha Huang in Singapore at [email protected] .

Last Updated: February 4, 2008 22:11 EST

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