(Reuters) - Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp is running its 540.000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery at around 87 percent capacity after a crude distillation unit (CDU) resumed production in late April following a planned maintenance, its spokesman said on Wednesday. It has also restored runs at its 2.93 million tonnes per year (tpy) naphtha cracking complex to full capacity after operational rates were slightly decreased due to squeezed margins. But it has not restarted one of its two residue desulphurising unit (RDS) which was damaged by a fire in July last year.
Without the RDS -- which removes sulphur -- Formosa needs to rely on light sweet crudes, which are more expensive that heavy crude oil. The privately-run firm operates three CDUs of equal capacity.