Venezuela's refineries boost processing to 35% of capacity
Venezuela's refining network is operating at about 35% of its installed capacity of 1.29 MMbpd, workers at the facilities said, above the 20% to 25% of last year but still a low volume to secure enough fuel to meet rising domestic demand.
The South American country's refineries, operated by state energy company PDVSA, are frequently hit by power outages and malfunctions that limit fuel supply to vehicles, power plants and homes. Venezuela has been forced to ration gasoline, diesel and cooking gas in the past.
However, the Amuay, Cardon, El Palito and Puerto la Cruz refineries were jointly processing some 450,000 bpd of Venezuelan crude this week, according to the sources, who added that PDVSA is trying to keep key fuel-making plants in service.
At the country's largest complex, the 955,000-bpd Paraguana Refining Center, total crude processing rose to 287,000 bpd at five of its nine distillation units after recovering from a power blackout earlier this month that took one of its refineries, Amuay, out of service. Its second refinery, Cardon, was restarting a key gasoline-making plant on Thursday, the workers said.
The 187,000-bpd Puerto la Cruz refinery was processing some 82,000 bpd of crude at two distillation units.
And at the 146,000-bpd El Palito, one distillation unit was running 80,000 bpd of crude, while its fluid catalytic cracker was processing 35,000 bpd, according to the sources.
The state company, whose oil output recovered to some 1 MMbpd this month after most production cuts ordered during a U.S. blockade were reversed, has been changing the configuration of some of its crude upgraders at the country's main oil region, the Orinoco Belt, to secure feedstock for its refineries.
Since January and under fresh U.S. licenses following the capture of President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela is complementing domestic fuel output with imports of U.S. naphtha, both for diluting the Orinoco's extra-heavy oil and for making high-octane gasoline.
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