PdV struggling to restore refinery: union

OREANDA-NEWS. March 13, 2015. Venezuelan state-owned PdV is having trouble re-starting key crude oil processing units at its 940,000 b/d CRP refining complex, FUTPV oil union officials said today.

The CRP refining complex includes the 635,000 b/d Amuay refinery and the nearby 305,000 b/d Cardon refinery.

Cardon is currently operating at about 40pc of its nameplate capacity as PdV completes repairs to a naphtha reformer unit and distillation unit 4. Both plants have been off line for more than a month because of unexpected equipment breakdowns and programmed maintenance, a union official at Cardon told Argus.

PdV was forced to shut down Amuay on 10 March after the facility's steam generation systems suffered an unspecified breakdown that was quickly addressed, an oil union official at Amuay said.

PdV said Amuay would return to normal operations by tomorrow, but the union officials said ongoing repairs at Cardon's naphtha reformer and distillation unit 4 will not be completed for at least another week.

The CRP, which accounts for over 72pc of PdV's domestic nameplate refining capacity of 1.3mn b/d, has experienced at least 18 major equipment failures since a major blackout last November forced the emergency shutdown of both refineries, according to the FUTPV.

PdV declined to comment.

PdV maintains that local gasoline and diesel supplies have not been disrupted by the CRP's recurring operational problems.

Gasoline and diesel inventories are "more than sufficient" to cover local consumption and it has not had to import gasoline, the company says.

But US energy information administration data through end-2014 shows that PdV's US-sourced imports of finished motor gasoline spiked from about 8,666 b/d in November 2014 to over 42,000 b/d in December 2014.

Fuel shortages in Caracas and other Venezuelan cities have become more commonplace since mid-2014.

Venezuela normally consumes about 700,000 b/d of refined products, mostly gasoline and diesel.