Refinery owner-operator NZRC said all major processing units had been started up and were producing petrol, diesel and jet fuel since the beginning of this week. Total cost was expected to be close to the budgeted NZ$12 million.

The main trigger for the shutdown was the need to change the exhausted catalyst in the Platformer and Hydrocracker.

Additionally, numerous inspections, cleaning and maintenance jobs were carried out. Many tie-ins for the NZ$180 million Future Fuels project were installed to allow the start-up of the new plant in 2005 eliminating the need for an additional shutdown of the process units affected this year.

The refinery will now start to produce diesel meeting the new specification which comes into force this August when the sulphur content of diesel will be reduced to 500 ppm.