PdV investigating refinery unit blast

A 100,000 b/d crude distillation unit at Venezuelan state-owned PdV's 635,000 b/d Amuay refinery exploded yesterday, according to a refinery manager and a labor union official on the site.

The unit was in recirculation mode when the incident occurred at 2:37pm ET.

The blast at Amuay's CD-4 is a setback in PdV's choppy efforts repair Amuay and the nearby 305,000 b/d Cardon refinery in order to boost gasoline production. Venezuela has been in the throes of a severe fuel shortage for most of this year.

The manager described the damage at Amuay as "very considerable" but said an investigation is still underway.

The union official said the incident may have been caused by a water leak that triggered a vapor blast.

The internal damages "appear initially to be so severe that the unit could be irrecoverable and may have to be rebuilt completely, but we have to wait until accident investigators complete their technical reports," the union official said. He blamed PdV for cutting safety corners in its rush to manufacture gasoline.

Amuay's CD-4 and CD-1 distillation units "should have been shut down completely when the refinery's industrial services failed on 23 October, but PdV ordered that both units be placed into recirculation mode avoid lengthy safe restart protocols," the official added.

The Amuay refinery manager confirmed that the CD-4 and CD-1 units had been in recirculation mode since water and electricity supplies to the refinery failed early this week. CD-1 is still in recirculation mode.