Venezuela's largest refinery shutdown after power outage, sources say

CARACAS: A power outage on Sunday forced the shutdown of Venezuela's largest refinery, the 645,000-barrel-per-day Amuay, though the electric service was later restored, workers from that facility and residents said.

Amuay, which is part of ‌the 955,000-bpd ⁠Paraguana ⁠Refining Center, was the second refinery without electricity following two deadly earthquakes in the country.

The South American nation has been struggling to provide power to industrial plants, refineries, businesses and citizens following the quakes, which have left at least 1,450 people dead. Amuay, key for fuel output for domestic ⁠distribution, was processing ‌some 137,000 bpd of crude before the quakes.


Insufficient water for some power plants and ⁠industries in western Falcon State, including the refinery, also is affecting operations, some of the workers said.

The power was restored to Amuay at night, allowing workers to begin restarting operational units, particularly its crude distillation plants, two sources said.

The smaller 146,000-bpd El Palito refinery and the neighboring Moron Petrochemical Complex in the country's ‌central region have been unable to fully restart operations amid the unstable power supply, separate sources said.

The quakes did not ⁠affect the country's crude output levels or exports, which provide the lion's share of revenue, the oil ministry has said, but domestic output of fuel and petrochemicals might not be enough to meet demand once people go back to work after the quakes if refineries and related facilities cannot sustain operations.