HOUSTON: Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to restart the coker at its 225,300-barrel-per-day (bpd) Norco, Louisiana, refinery next week, sources familiar with plant operations said on Friday.

Shell shut the 25,000-bpd coker along with Gas Olefins Unit 1 in its adjoining chemical plant, in the first two weeks of July for planned overhauls, the sources said.

Shell spokesman Ray Fisher declined comment.

Cokers convert residual crude oil from distillation units into feedstocks for motor fuels or petroleum coke, a coal substitute.