PdV boosts refinery runs, fuel gap persists

Venezuela's state-owned PdV is approaching 200,000 b/d of throughput at its 940,000 b/d CRP refining complex although sustained operations remain elusive.

The complex located on the Paraguana peninsula consists of the 305,000 b/d Cardon refinery and the nearby 635,000 b/d Amuay refinery, the largest and traditionally most advanced parts of PdV's debilitated 1.3mn b/d refining system.

The CRP currently is processing a combined 197,000 b/d of medium quality crude, including 57,000 b/d at Cardon's distillation unit CD-1 and 140,000 b/d at Amuay's CD-1 and CD-4 units. The CRP has a total of nine CDUs, five at Amuay and four at Cardon.

Cardon is producing about 25,000 b/d of 83 RON gasoline from its 86,000 b/d fluid catalytic cracker. PdV expects to restart Cardon's 54,000 b/d naphtha reformer in coming days, doubling gasoline production to about 50,000 b/d. Repairs are also focused on restarting a second crude distillation unit, plus 25,000 b/d of alkylation, 185,000 b/d of hydrodesulfurization (HDS) and hydrotreatment (HDT) capacity, and MTBE/TAME units.

Amuay's 108,000 b/d FCC, 258,000 b/d HDS and 22,000 b/d alkylation units have been out of service for up to four years. "Cardon is our main priority, although we are working on adding more distillation capacity and repairing the FCC at Amuay," a CRP manager said.

PdV's efforts since May to restart gasoline production at its 140,000 b/d El Palito refinery in Carabobo state have repeatedly failed, sparking fires and oil spills. "Operators were able to very briefly raise El Palito's FCC production up to 35,000 b/d before the latest fire broke out," a PdV manager at the refinery said.

Since early October, PdV has been trying to repair crude distillation and other units at its 190,000 b/d Puerto La Cruz refinery as well.

The refinery, located in Anzoategui state, was the subject of an estimated $9bn upgrade by Korean-Chinese consortium Hyundai Wison before the project stalled around 2017 on lack of payment from PdV.

The upgrade would have boosted crude processing capacity to 210,000 b/d and installed equipment to process Venezuela's extra-heavy crude, freeing up lighter grades for blending.

PdV's chronic refining problems, which are aggravated by a lack of steady industrial services, have left many Venezuelan service stations dry in recent months, with brief respites from Iranian gasoline shipments.

The Venezuelan company routinely blames its operational problems on US sanctions.