Power Outage Halts Activities at Cardon Refinery in Venezuela

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--A failure in Venezuela's interconnected power grid, because of an overcharge in the T-31 substation, caused a power outage at the Cardon refinery on December 3, 2007. The refinery, owned by PDVSA, has a 295-barrel-per-day production capacity and 30 processing units. It is a part of the Paraguana Refining Center (Centro de Refinacion Paraguana), one of the largest refining centers in Falcon State, Venezuela. As soon as the power failure occurred, the emergency protocol was implemented, and all of the units were halted to prevent damage to the plant. The start-up process began December 4, 2007, and authorities expect to have the units producing by December 10, 2007. Authorities said that no one was injured and that no damage was done.

This is not the first time in 2007 that the Cardon refinery has been affected by problems in the country's interconnected electric system. In October, another power breakdown affected the refinery's activities, which were resumed after four days. For more details, view related October 24, 2007, article - Venezuela's Cardon Refinery Back Online after Power Outage.

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