BP Plc plans to keep the 435,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Whiting, Indiana refinery shut for up to three weeks for inspections of units and piping following a Feb. 1 plant-wide power outage, said people familiar with operations on Wednesday.
The inspections could be completed in as short a time as two weeks, the sources said.
A BP spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Any damage discovered by the inspections could lengthen the time the refinery is shut, the sources said.
One focus of the inspections has been to determine the exact cause of the power interruption, which has been attributed to failures of two transformers, the sources said.
The Whiting refinery is the largest in U.S. Midwest.
Chicago-market CBOB gasoline gained 2 cents a gallon to trade at a 10-cent discount to futures. Diesel climbed 7.5 cents to a 7.5-cent discount.
In addition to inspecting the large refining units, BP has to examine miles of piping all of which underwent significant strain when power was lost on the afternoon of Feb. 1, the sources said.
BP has brought in all employees to work on inspections of refining units in preparation for restarting, according to the sources.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Chris Reese and Stephen Coates)