Venezuela's PDVSA Continues to Face Operational Issues, an Industrial Info Market Brief

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PDVSA's 625,000-barrel-per-day (BBL/d) Amuay Refinery in Venezuela was forced to shut down due to utility issues earlier this week. Prior to that, the refinery was operating at lower rates, with only two of the five crude units online, due to financial constraints and COVID-19. Current plans are to restart the 85,000-BBL/d Crude 1 and 120,000-BBL/d Crude 4 by late July. The 120,000-BBL/d Crude 2 and 180,000-BBL/d Crude 5 will remain offline, while the 120,000-BBL/d Crude 3, offline since late December 2017, will be kept under repairs until early 2021.

Meanwhile, PDVSA's 295,000-BBL/d Cardon Refinery continues running at lower rates. The 70,000-BBL/d Crude 3, 77,000-BBL/d FCCU and associated units remain online. However, to keep these units online, feed from the currently offline Amuay Refinery is necessary. The 75,000-BBL/d Crude Distillation 1 and 58,000-BBL/d Vacuum 3, that were forced offline on June 12 due to mechanical issues, are set for restart by early August.