MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Venezuela’s Cardon refinery has stopped producing gasoline because its reformat unit has down, reported Reuters with reference to a union leader and two other people knowledge of the situation.
State oil company (PDVSA) restarted gasoline production at its naphtha reformer a week ago, amid severe fuel shortages in the OPEC nation whose refining network suffers from chronic operational problems.
US sanctions against the government of President Nicolas Maduro also make it difficult to import fuel.
“Yes, the reformer is halted,” said one of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
PDVSA did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The 45,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) reformer is typically used to convert naphtha into blending components used to raise the octane of gasoline. But PDVSA has been using it to produce some 25,000 bpd of gasoline for the domestic market.
Union leader Ivan Freites told Reuters that Cardon’s 88,000-bpd fluid catalytic cracking unit, which is crucial for large-scale gasoline production, is halted.
That plant could restart in the coming days, said Freites and the two refinery sources. The catalytic cracking unit remains halted at the 146,000-bpd El Palito refinery.
Venezuela consumes about 180,000 bpd of gasoline amid an economic crisis and coronavirus quarantine measures. But PDVSA is only supplying 30,000 bpd, causing huge lines and protests.
In May, a shipment of 1.5 million barrels of Iranian fuel temporarily improved supplies, but lines have returned as supplies dried up.
As MRC informed before, Russian state oil company Rosneft's decision to cease operations in Venezuela and sell its assets there to a Russian government-owned company was a "maneuver" made in reaction to collapsing oil prices, a US State Department official said earlier this year.
We remind that Angarsk Polymers Plant, part of Russian oil giant Rosneft, shut down its low density polyethylene (LDPE) production for a scheduled turnaround on 22 June. The outage was scheduled to last for one month. The plant"s annual production capacity is about 75,000 tonnes.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, June estimated LDPE consumption in Russia grew to 55,260 tonnes from 45,490 tonnes a month earlier. Kazanorgsintez raised its PE output after a spring shutdown for a scheduled turnaround. Russia's estimated LDPE consumption rose to 291,270 tonnes in January-June 2020, up by 5% year on year. Russian producers raised their production, and LDPE imports also increased.
MRC