South Korea GS Caltex to plan a crude unit shutdown in March

SEOUL: South Korea's GS Caltex will shut a 330,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) No. 4 crude distillation unit (CDU) next March for maintenance for about one month, company and trading sources said.

Its 60,000-bpd hydrocracker will also be offline in the month, they added. Spokesmen at GS Caltex declined to comment.

Another refiner, S-Oil, will shut two CDUs totalling 330,000 bpd for maintenance, one each in April and July of next year, company and trading sources said.

A third refiner, Hyundai Oilbank, said it would shut a 280,000-bpd CDU next April for maintenance, while South Korea's biggest refiner, SK Energy, plans to close two CDUs totalling around 280,000 bpd for maintenance in the first half of 2013, traders said last month.