大火影响，壳牌计划关闭整个新加坡炼油厂

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Shell is in the process of shutting down its entire 500,000 bbl/day refinery at Pulau Bukom in Singapore and may also close nearby petrochemical units in an attempt to control a fire that has been burning since Wednesday, a company official said on Thursday.
“We…are going through a progressive shutdown of the refinery," Martijn van Koten, vice president for Shell’s manufacturing operations, told reporters at a press briefing.
The shutdown process at the refinery site has been initiated and could take two days to be completed, van Koten said.
Lee Tzu Yang, chairman of Shell Companies in Singapore, added that it had not declared force majeure on any products.
The company’s integrated complex at Bukom has a crude distillation capacity of 500,000 bbl/day. It is Shell's largest refinery in the world in terms of crude distillation capacity.
Shell’s nearby ethylene cracker complex could be forced to shut as attempts are made to control the fire, van Koten said, but declined to comment on a specific timeline.
Shell has already shut some of the production facilities at Bukom, including a hydrocracking unit that makes diesel, as a safety precaution.
The blaze, which started on Wednesday afternoon, involves petroleum products from pipes in the tank farm at the manufacturing facility.
The fire, which may have been started during maintenance work, has damaged a pump room site near the tank farm, according to the company.
“The source of the fire is remnant light fuel components within the specific area where the fire originated. The smoke observed is from hydrocarbons that are not fully combusted,” Shell said in an earlier statement.
However, it is too early too tell what the exact cause of the fire was and extensive investigations will begin once it is extinguished, the company said.

译文如下：

新加坡（ICIS）——一位公司高层周四称，壳牌公司正在筹划关闭位于新加坡Pulau Bukom的整个50万桶/天炼油装置，并且有可能关闭附近的石化工厂以控制周三发生的大火。
“我们现在很积极的要关闭炼油厂” Martijn van Koten，壳牌制造运营副主席在一个记者简报会上这样通知大家，并说在炼油厂地址的关闭进程已经开始，将耗时2天。
Lee Tzu Yang，壳牌公司新加坡分公司的主席补充说并未对任何产品造成不可抗力。
壳牌公司在Bukom的综合大楼拥有一个50万桶/天的天然蒸馏产能，是该公司在全球范围内最大的天然蒸馏炼油厂。
为了控制火势，壳牌附近的乙烯裂解装置也可能面临停车。
作为安全预警，壳牌已经关闭了在Bukom的一些生产装置，其中包括用于制造柴油的加氢裂化装置。
周三发生的火灾涉及到制造装置罐区管道的石油产品。据壳牌新加坡公司称，这次火灾可能是在维修过程中引起的，已经对罐区附近的一个水泵房产生了破坏。
“火源是火灾形成的特定区域内的轻质原油废料。发现的烟雾是由未完全燃烧的碳氢化合物造成的。”壳牌公司在早前的一个声明中指出。
然而，现在宣布真正的火灾起因还为时过早，壳牌公司称一旦大火扑灭将立即开始大规模调查。