July 21 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc is planning to shut a crude unit at Europe's second-largest refinery for maintenance later this year, three people with knowledge of the plans said.

One of two so-called crude distillation units at the 400,000 barrel-a-day Rotterdam facility is scheduled to shut in October for four to five weeks, the people said, declining to be named because the information is confidential. Robert Wine, a BP spokesman based in London, declined to comment on the shutdown.

BP idled its other crude unit at the site at the end of June for three to four weeks of repairs. The plant is due to resume production this week, two of the people said. The crude units each have a capacity of 200,000 barrels a day.

Gasoline and diesel prices reached records this month as refinery maintenance curtailed supplies and high oil costs made it more expensive to produce the fuels.

Gasoline for loading in the main European hub of Amsterdam- Rotterdam-Antwerp hit $1,192 a metric ton on July 11 and diesel surged to $1,346.25 a ton, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. On the same day, Brent traded at a high of $147.50 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc owns Europe's biggest refinery, at Pernis in the Netherlands, with a daily oil-processing capacity of 416,000 barrels.

A crude-distillation unit separates oil into components for fuels including jet, diesel and gasoline, which may need further processing in other plants.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nidaa Bakhsh in London at nbakhsh@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 21, 2008 10:38 EDT