Czech Rafinerska sees restart decision next week

...Thursday.

The refinery has been mostly out of operation, beyond a planned shutdown, due to an accident at a neighbouring plant last weekend which cut hydrogen supplies.

It said earlier this week it would restart in several days.

"We are not producing fuels, which is key, because there is no hydrogen," spokesman Ales Soukup said.

"Equipment that can run without hydrogen are functioning, but that is not an operation in the proper sense of the word," he said.

The company said in a statement that it was making some products for storage while trying to secure the hydrogen supply elsewehere, and that it expected to give a date for fuel production resumption next week.

Rafinerska, 51 percent owned by Czech group Unipetrol , itself a unit of Poland's PKN , runs the country's two biggest refineries in Litvinov and Kralupy.

Italy's ENI and Royal Dutch Shell hold minority stakes in Rafinerska.

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]