With the stoppage of the catalytic plant of the Cardón refinery, which is part of the Paraguaná Refining Complex (CRP), the production of gasoline in Falcón State was halted, which affects the supply of fuel, especially in central and western Venezuela.
By Correspondent lapatilla.com
According to CRP oil workers, the compressor catalytic unit was damaged, which is one of the main plants that produces one of the fuel components, and this anomaly caused the suspension of all fuel production. At the Cardón refinery, only the reformer remains operational, which is another essential plant for the production of fuel.
Catalytic (Dcay) of the Amuay refinery was shutdown several months ago and they have not been able to reactivate it because they are waiting for refractory material to repair the regenerator and rebuild the electrical protection on the equipment walls so that no hot spots are generated.
Although it had been estimated that it would be ready for May 30th, until now it is not known when the refractory will arrive. As for the distiller units, they are working with low load to fill the tanks, with additives for the production of gasoline.
“The crude that is processed is forcing the machinery, because it is very heavy crude. The Zulia oil wells are closed and, therefore, the oil that is processed is very heavy and drives down the machines into poor condition. The Government announced that they will reopen the Zulia State oil wells, but no movement has been seen. As much as we do a good job with the plants recovering them, if they are not taken care of with light oil, these forced shutdowns will continue and fuel production will stop,” said an oil worker who preferred not to be named.