06 Aug Oil refinery shuts down
Royal Dutch Shell has suspended the loading of oil products from its massive Pernis refinery in the Dutch port of Rotterdam after a fire caused the shut down of most of its production.
Firefighters took more than six hours to bring the blaze, thought to have been started by a short circuit, under control and there were no casualties.
However, it was predicted the closedown of a refinery with a capacity to refine more 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day would create an increase in the prices of diesel, jetfuel and gasoline in northwest Europe.