RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's state-controlled oil and gas giant Petrobras announced Monday a partial shutdown of the Paulinia Refinery (Replan).
Petrobras said the partial shutdown is a precautionary measure determined by the National Petroleum Agency (ANP).
Replan was hit by a fire on Aug. 20. Petrobras said it was caused by an explosion in the tank of one of the acidic water units associated with the catalytic cracking unit, which also impacted one of the refinery's atmospheric distillation units.
Petrobras said that despite the partial shutdown, utilities and product delivery operations have been maintained. Petrobras said it is compiling the documents and information required by the ANP to attest to the appropriate safety conditions for the safe operation resumption at the units that were not affected by the accident.
"Petrobras will wait for the precautionary measure to be lifted by the agency, maintaining the expectation that the production process will start in the next few days, once it has already taken similar measures to those required by ANP," the company said.
