PdV restarts MTBE plant for domestic supply

Venezuelan state-owned oil firm PdV has restarted a unit that produces MTBE at its Jose complex in Anzoategui state for the first time in five years, the company said.

The oxygenate will be used "to optimize the octane rating of the gasoline distributed in Venezuela," PdV president and energy minister Pedro Tellechea said on social media on Monday. Years of underinvestment in refinery maintenance in Venezuela has led to periodic gasoline shortages.

The Super Octanos unit, with a nameplate capacity of 600,000 t/yr, had produced MTBE only for the domestic market for many years. It stopped operations after former US president Donald Trump began imposing comprehensive sanctions on Venezuela's oil industry five years ago, which also cut off imports of MTBE from the US.

Venezuela imported 562,750 metric tons (t) of MTBE from the US in 2014, but this fell to 30,703 t in 2019 before the flow dried up because of the sanctions in 2020.

By Carlos Camacho