---

Greek oil company Hellenic Petroleum (HELPE) said on Friday that its bunker-producing refinery in Elefsina is set to be closed until September.

The plant was shut down following the malfunction of a hydrogen production unit on July 10, and, as a result, the decision was also made to bring forward its plan to perform maintenance work.

"It was decided that maintenance works at all units of the Elefsina refinery, which were scheduled to be implemented gradually from the end of September 2017 until March 2018, will be carried out during the shut-down period," HELPE stated.

The start-up of the refinery and the completion of maintenance work are expected to take place in mid-September, HELPE said.

The 100,000-barrel-per day (bbl/d) Elefsina refinery is HELPE's second largest. The company also operates production plants in Aspropyrgos (148,000 bbl/d) and Thessaloniki (93,000 bbl/d). Together, they cover approximately 65 percent of Greece's total refining capacity.

All three facilities offer a full range of high-sulphur and low-sulphur marine fuels and distillates.

The Elefsina plant has the biggest storage capacity of HELPE's refineries at 3.3 million cubic metres. It is also connected to the Aspropyrgos refinery via a pipeline network.

HELPE said the Aspropyrgos and Thessaloniki refineries would be covering the supply needs of customers whilst the Elefsina plant was offline.

In terms of distance, Aspropyrgos and Elefsina are located only around 5.5 kilometres apart in the Gulf of Elefsina, and are both approximately 25 kilometres from Piraeus, Greece's most important bunkering port. The Aegean Sea city of Thessaloniki, meanwhile, is located in the north of the country.