Caracas, 28 September (Argus) — A “massive gas leak” caused the 25 August explosion at PdV's 635,000 b/d Amuay refinery, energy minister Rafael Ramirez said last night.
Three separate ongoing investigations coordinated by state-owned oil company PdV's security division “have identified several possible sites where the gas leak could have occurred. Of course, the gas leak was massive, causing a rapid concentration of the gas cloud that exploded,” Ramirez said.
Metallurgical scans of the damaged infrastructure will identify whether the gas leak was the result of a faulty valve or cracks in the pipelines that transport olefins, butane and methane between the gas storage spheres and the refinery's processing plants.
“We're not going to give any more information [about what caused the explosion] until we are completely certain that all of the causal elements are verified,” he said.
But Ramirez appeared to concede last night for the first time that PdV's investigators, assisted by the government's Sebin intelligence service, have discarded sabotage and bad weather as possible causes.
Only hours after the deadly explosion Ramirez declared it was “absolutely impossible” that the cause was a gas leak that was not detected for several days before the blast. Ramirez a month ago also rejected Fuptv oil union charges that PdV has slashed refinery maintenance budgets and repeatedly postponed programmed turnarounds since 2008.
The day after the Amuay explosion, Ramirez blamed a combination of poor weather and bad luck, and he also hinted at possible sabotage.
The explosion in storage area No. 23 at the refinery killed at least 42 people, injured 135 others, and destroyed over 1,600 nearby homes and up to 50 businesses. The blast also destroyed or structurally damaged 10 product storage tanks and eight gas storage spheres.
Amuay is processing about 360,000 b/d of crude as of last night, or roughly 56.6pc of its nameplate capacity, PdV and Fuptv union officials working at the 940,000 b/d CRP Paraguana refining complex said this morning.
The CRP complex includes the Amuay refinery and nearby 305,000 b/d Cardon refinery.
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