Two PDVSA Petroleum Terminals in the Caribbean on Fire

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Two petroleum facilities owned by Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) in the Caribbean caught fire September 8 and 9, impacting operations.

The fire may have originated on a crude tank at PDVSA's terminal in Curacao during an electric storm. This site has a storage capacity of 750,000 barrels and is part of the Bullen Bay installation on the Caribbean island.

On the other hand, the fire that broke out at PDVSA's facility in Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles, also originated with an electric storm, but the site will stay offline for about four days. As a result, there will not be any crude petroleum loading or unloading activities in the island terminal. The facility, where PDVSA stores up to 12 million barrels of crude oil, as well as other products that are exported to the American and Chinese markets, has been paralyzed after an electrical storm set afire two of the 23 storage tanks owned by Bopec (Bonaire).

Local authorities have been able to put out the fire that took place in Curacao; however, they will need to wait for the fire in Bonaire to extinguish on its own, which will require the 200,000 barrels of naphtha stored in the tank at the moment of the incident to be consumed.

Bonaire's local government has stated that even though there is minimum risk of the flames spreading, there may be environmental pollution caused by the emission of chemical gases. The media and local witnesses said that there were enormous blazes and a gigantic smoke cloud coming from the plant, everything was covered in soot, and an intense heat was felt in the area, which is why the firefighters had to stop their extinction work as a safety measure.

Bopec's terminal, together with the neighboring site of Borco in the Bahamas and Isla in Curacao, are at the heart of PDVSA's plan to transport products to the Asian market.

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