PdV investigating refinery unit blast

Spanish Market: Crude oil, Oil products
28/10/20

A 100,000 b/d crude distillation unit at Venezuelan state-owned PdV's 635,000 b/d Amuay refinery exploded yesterday, according to a refinery manager and a labor union official on the site.

The unit was in recirculation mode when the incident occurred at 2:37pm ET.

The blast at Amuay's CD-4 is a setback in PdV's choppy efforts repair Amuay and the nearby 305,000 b/d Cardon refinery in order to boost gasoline production. Venezuela has been in the throes of a severe fuel shortage for most of this year.

The manager described the damage at Amuay as "very considerable" but said an investigation is still underway.

The union official said the incident may have been caused by a water leak that triggered a vapor blast.

The internal damages "appear initially to be so severe that the unit could be irrecoverable and may have to be rebuilt completely, but we have to wait until accident investigators complete their technical reports," the union official said. He blamed PdV for cutting safety corners in its rush to manufacture gasoline.

Amuay's CD-4 and CD-1 distillation units "should have been shut down completely when the refinery's industrial services failed on 23 October, but PdV ordered that both units be placed into recirculation mode avoid lengthy safe restart protocols," the official added.

The Amuay refinery manager confirmed that the CD-4 and CD-1 units had been in recirculation mode since water and electricity supplies to the refinery failed early this week. CD-1 is still in recirculation mode.

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21/11/24

Cop: EU, four countries commit to 1.5°C climate plans

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Cop: EU says finance draft text not acceptable

21/11/24

Cop: EU says finance draft text not acceptable

Baku, 21 November (Argus) — The latest draft of the text on climate financing presented at the UN Cop 29 climate summit is not ambitious enough on mitigation — reducing emissions — and "clearly unacceptable," EU energy commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said today. Parties must agree at Cop 29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, on a new collective quantified goal (NCQG) — a new climate finance target — building on the $100bn/yr that developed countries agreed to deliver to developing countries over 2020-25. The text is the main outcome for the summit. "What we had on our agenda was not just to restate the [Cop 28] consensus but actually to enhance that and to operationalise that," but the text goes in the opposite direction, Hoekstra said. Parties to last year's Cop 28 summit in Dubai made an historic pledge to "transition away" from all fossil fuels. The EU has warned against any backsliding on this pledge . "We cannot accept the view that the previous Cop did not happen," Hoekstra said. A draft text on the mitigation work programme — a process that focuses on emissions reduction — was released by the Cop 29 presidency in the early hours of this morning. It does not mention phasing out or reducing fossil fuels in energy systems, or reference the agreement reached on the latter point at Cop 28 last year. Hoekstra indicated today's text does not provide enough clarity to allow the EU to put a concrete number on the amount of climate finance that should be available. The bloc has insisted the final number for climate financing can come only when other elements, including the structure and contributor base, are settled. But recipient country groups such as the G77 and Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) groups have expressed impatience at the lack of a concrete number. Minor bright spots in the numerous draft texts released overnight include those on Article 6, which governs international carbon credits, Hoekstra said. But the commissioner is "sure there is not a single ambitious country who thinks this is nearly good enough." By Rhys Talbot Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Mexico to keep some energy regulator independence

20/11/24

Mexico to keep some energy regulator independence

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Tupras agrees more than 500kt 2025 bitumen tender sales

20/11/24

Tupras agrees more than 500kt 2025 bitumen tender sales

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Baghdad clamps down on 'illegal' oil smuggling to Iran

20/11/24

Baghdad clamps down on 'illegal' oil smuggling to Iran

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