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Portugal's Galp Energia has begun to restart its 200,000 barrels-per-day Sines refinery following planned maintenance and restructuring work which commenced on September 15th, Reuters reports.

A company spokesperson is reported to have said that the cranking up of some units has already begun, but the refinery was not yet operating at full capacity.

The shutdown of the bunker-producing facility, which was scheduled to last 40-45 days, lead to the company raising imports of oil products during this period in order to meet demand.

The facility is reported to have a storage capacity of 3 million cubic metres of liquids, with 50 percent being for crude oil.

Last month, Galp Chief Executive Manuel Ferreira de Oliveira said the company would spend 104 million euros on the maintenance and restructuring work at Sines, which is also the largest refinery in Portugal.

Petrogal S.A., the brand name used for Galp's bunkering activities, supplies 380-centistoke (cst), 180-cst and marine gasoil (MGO) at Sines. However, ex-pipe deliveries of 380-cst and MGO are only available to tankers working cargo at the refinery.

The country's other refinery in Oporto, produces approximately 100,000 barrels-per-day and is also used as a source to supply marine fuel to the bunker market. Petrogal supplies MGO by pipeline to tankers working cargo at the refinery and other general cargo vessels can take MGO or fuel by road tank wagon (RTW).

The shutdown of the Sines refinery, is not understood to have had any serious repercussions on the availability of bunker fuels during the shutdown period.