<article><p class="lead">Venezuela is restarting a natural gas pipeline key to the Jose refining and petrochemical complex and electricity generation more than a week after a fire knocked the line out of service.</p><p>"From Sunday afternoon on, the process of restarting began," an oil industry source told <i>Argus</i> on 25 July.</p><p>The fire near the Aguasay 5A compression station on the Muscar-Soto gas pipeline broke out on 16 July, and oil minister Tareck El Aissami said three days later that pipeline service would be restored within hours.</p><p>State oil company PdV declined to comment.</p><p>Gas is finally arriving to Jose and "they are starting to turn on some plants" inside the vast Anzoategui state complex, but some auxiliary services still have not been reconnected, a PdV engineer who works in the area where the plants and the pipeline are told <i>Argus.</i></p><p>Water service is set to be restored to the complex and most of it should be back in operation by 26 July, the source said.</p><p>In Valencia, state petrochemical giant Pequiven and other, smaller companies are also receiving gas supply for the first time in several days, another source said.</p><p>In the US, exiled union leader Ivan Freites said that while the emergency may be over for now, the fire took place at a hub where three major pipelines connect and this could also affect upstream production.</p><p class="bylines">By Carlos Camacho</p></article>
