Complete Shutdown at Cardon Refinery in Venezuela

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). On April 14, 2006, an electrical fault at substation T-31 led to a power outage, which paralyzed operations at the Cardon refinery in Venezuela. PDVSA said that a flaw in the substation caused the electrical fault, which affected the refinery's vapor, air, and power services, forcing the shutdown. This refinery, which normally processes 305,000 barrels per day, together with Amuay and Bajo Grande form the Centro de Refinacion Paraguana CRP (Paraguana Refining Center), which is the biggest refining center in the world. This complex has a capacity of 955,000 bbl/ day and it is Venezuela's main source of gasoline exports.

PDVSA guaranteed continued fuel supply to domestic and international markets since the state oil company claims to have sufficient reserves to keep up regardless of the interruption. Moreover, PDVSA declared that production has been partially restored at the Cardon refinery since the shutdown, and that it is currently producing 200,000 barrels a day. Miguel Hernandez, PDVSA´s international public relations manager told Industrial Info Resources that the Cardon refinery will not be back fully into operation until at least April 20th, 2006.

According to Hernandez, the Amuay refinery has not been affected due to this power outage at the Cardon refinery. On March 29, 2006 there was an explosion at the Amuay refinery due to a gas leak during a routine maintenance inspection where one of the hydrogen compressors was in the process of being shutdown. Due to this explosion, different units, such as the hydrotreater 1 and 2, as well as the VGO unit shutdown, forcing other units to produce well below normal capacity even to this day.

PDVSA highlights that the shutdown at the Cardon refinery will not affect domestic and international markets, although it is known that an interruption of operations in a refinery complex of this size translates into global losses of million of dollars. A complete shutdown at Cardon can only bring about negative consequences to the international market and especially the US since Venezuela is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and one of the top suppliers to the U.S.

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