Newly combined petrochemical giant LyondellBasell said recently that it is performing unscheduled maintenance at a refinery in Houston.

The fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU)'s first-stage compressor shut down in mid-March and could not be restarted. According to a company statement, the cracker was estimated to be out of service until mid-April. The company says the 268,000 barrels per day refinery will operate at reduced rates during this outage.

LyondellBasell also completed the purchase of the Shell oil refinery and associated infrastructure at the Berre l'Etang petrochemical complex in France.

The refinery, with production capacity of 105,000 barrels per day, is adjacent to a LyondellBasell polyolefins complex at Berre that includes a steam cracker, butadiene extraction unit and world-scale polypropylene and polyethylene plants.

LyondellBasell was created in December when Lyondell and Basell completed their merger. The company also bought the Solvay Engineered Polymers polypropylene subsidiary from Solvay this year.