Attempts are being made to restart the largest oil refinery in Europe, which was shut down after a fire at the end of July.

Royal Dutch Shell said it is aiming to restart most units at its Pernis refinery in Rotterdam by the end of this month.

The plant, which can process up to 404,000 barrels of crude oil per day, was shut down on July 29 after the fire knocked out its electricity supply.

The shut down of such a significant plant for European supply, particularly of diesel, lead to fears of shortages and of fuel price rises.

“We hope to restart most of our units before the end of August,” Shell spokesman Thijs van Velzen said in a statement on Thursday August 10. “Shell Pernis is currently restarting a number of units as part of the phased restart of the entire plant.”

It was reported that Shell would attempt to restart one of its two crude distillation units on Friday August 11.