Jul 22, 2016.
REUTERS/Carlos Jasso
This Friday, August 4th, the union leader and secretary of the FUTPV, Iván Freites, reported in “X” (formerly known as Twitter) that the Paraguaná Refining Complex shut down again due to crude supply problems and maintenance failures, a situation confirmed by the oil workers of the Amuay and Cardón refineries.
Correspondent lapatilla.com
The oil workers informed La Patilla that VGO (Vacuum Gas Oil, in Spanish, Gasóleo de Vacío) is a derivative of petroleum that is produced by distillers and is the raw material for the plants that produce gasoline.
At the Amuay refinery, plants 1 and 2 are operational, but they produce between 10,000 and 30,000 barrels of VGO per day, which means too little to supply the daily needs of the Catalytic Cracking Unit (DCAY), which consumes 130,000 barrels per day.
“These are very old plants that barely produce 30,000 barrels and need light crude oil, and while there is no (light) oil, they will half work with heavy crude oil, but no bigger load can be added. We have realized that when crude oil with a high sulfur content arrives from the East, the plants suffer a lot and cannot work at their maximum capacity, and that is what is happening with the two distillers,” said a worker who preferred not to be identified.
Currently, DCAY is in recirculation, that means it is turned on, but not producing because there is no inventory to feed it.
During this time, some changes will be made to the generator valves, which although they had been repaired, we will take advantage of this stoppage to replace them.
“The plants are stopped due to a power issue and they are going to make some minor repairs that were planned, such as the regenerator that had leaks in some valves and although they were repaired, now they are going to be replaced while the plants are in recirculation to give it more reliability,” said another industry expert who preferred to remain anonymous.
As for possible solutions, the workers agree that PDVSA could maybe wait for the VGO inventory to grow at the Amuay y Cardón refinery, or that it be shipped from the El Palito refinery to Paraguaná, although they are very different refineries.
“Bringing VGO from El Palito would put the CRP plants at risk and it is complex,” said the worker.
Another solution would be to receive VGO from foreign refineries that process light crude oil. However, until now it is not known what will be the solution that PDVSA will choose.
The workers assured that the two CRP refineries are currently out of production, but El Palito continues to produce fuel, because the refinery does work with heavy oil, which is the one that comes from eastern Venezuela.