Power partially restored at Hess' Port Reading, NJ, refinery

Hess Corp.'s 70,000 barrel-per-day Port Reading, New Jersey, refinery had its power partially restored early on Saturday morning after it was cut during Hurricane Sandy, but full restart was at least several days away.

"Full power restoration will be needed to complete an assessment of refinery equipment before the restart process can begin," said a spokesperson.

"We are using the current power supply to bring in-plant utility systems back online, which will take several days and must be completed before the refinery can restart."

Sandy devastated the East Coast refined products network, temporarily shutting pipelines and the New York Harbor fuel delivery hub, as well as several refineries. In addition to Port Reading, Phillips 66's refinery in New Jersey remains shut.

Hess said fuel rack supply operations had been restored to terminals in Newark, Edgewater, and Brooklyn, but the Woodbridge and Bayonne terminals remained closed.

Marine operations at Hess's Pennsauken and Groton terminals are in the process of restarting, but operations in Woodbridge, Roeston, Newark, Brooklyn, Edgewater and Bayonne remained offline.

(Reporting by Matthew Robinson; Editing by Peter Cooney)