Exxon restarting units at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery, chemical plant

Exxon Mobil Corp began restarting units shut by a Wednesday fire at its Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery and chemical plant complex on Thursday night, sources familiar with plant operations said on Friday. Among the most crucial waiting to restart are three crude distillation units (CDUs) at the 502,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) Baton Rouge refinery that could be turned back on as early as next week if the natural gas supply can be restored to those units during that time, the sources said. On Thursday, Exxon restarted a sulfur plant in the refinery and a unit in the petrochemical plant, the sources said. The sulfur plant produces sulfur from hydrogen sulfide taken out of motor fuels to comply with US environmental rules. A fire on Wednesday broke out in the natural gas pipeline supplying the crude units, which were not damaged in the blaze. One of the refinery's four CDUs remains in operation.