CARACAS: Venezuela’s largest oil refining complex, considered one of the world’s biggest, has been knocked out of operation by a power failure that President Nicolas Maduro attributes to sabotage.
Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state oil monopoly, says the power failure occurred on Thursday morning at the Amuay and Cardon refining complex.
It said power was restored several hours later and technicians were taking steps to reactivate the refineries, but indicated that it would take several days for operations to return to normal.
Stella Lugo, the governor of the state of Falcon, where the refineries are located, told state television ‘both refineries are out of commission’.
The Amuay refinery was devastated by an explosion on August 25, 2012 that killed 42 people and left five others unaccounted for.
PDVSA said Thursday’s outage shut down power to the Amuay and Cardon refineries and a nearby residential area, ‘without causing fires or harm to workers’.
In a televised speech, Maduro blamed the power failure on opponents of his leftist government, linking it to an incident on Wednesday at a power plant in the western state of Zulia.
‘There is a plan to sabotage the public services of the country,’ he said.
Maduro has often blamed opposition sabotage for breakdowns in the power grid, the metro, the public health system and the food distribution system.
The country has been struggling with a deepening economic recession, shortages of food and medicine, rising prices and soaring crime.
The Amuay and Cardon complex has a capacity to refine 635,000 barrels of oil a day.
PDVSA gave assurances that the shutdown would not affect the supply of fuel in the country, saying existing inventories were sufficient to meet demand.
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