BEIJING, Sept 5  - China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), parent of CNOOC Ltd , plans to reopen an 800,000 tonne-per-year aromatics unit at its Huizhou refinery in November after closures caused by a fire in July and planned maintenance next month, an industry source said.

The facility was shut down on July 11 due to explosions caused by a pump leak.

"Cleanup was not fully completed, and the unit will start its roughly one-month planned maintenance from October, so the startup is likely in early November," said the source.

An aromatics facility normally processes natural gas condensate or naphtha to make petrochemicals such as benzene and paraxylene.

Huizhou, which has a crude refining capacity of 240,000 barrels per day, will maintain normal operations at its crude refining unit in September despite concerns of possible excess amounts of naphtha.

"Some naphtha will be sold to a joint venture with Shell in the near term, and the rest to other domestic petrochemical makers", the source said.

Source:Reuters