Refineries hit by eight failures in the past 30 days

Venezuela's refining circuit has reported several incidents in the past month that have affected the production capacity of oil byproducts.

According to oil workers and statements issued by state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa), there have been at least eight failures at the refineries of El Palito (with a refining capacity of 140,000 barrels per day); Amuay (645,000 bpd) and Cardón (310,000 bpd) since December 2011.

The first incident in this period was reported on December 5, when there was a shutdown at the delayed coking unit of Amuay refinery.

The latest failure occurred on Monday, when plant-2 (PVAY-2) of the distillation unit at Amuay refinery was shut down.