A power outage yesterday forced Venezuela's largest refinery - "Amuay", with a capacity to process 645,000 barrels of oil per day – to stop work, refinery workers reported, quoted by Reuters, BTA reported.
This is the second refinery in the country to be left without electricity after two devastating earthquakes in the past week, the agency noted.
After the tremors, which killed at least 1,450 people, Venezuela is experiencing serious difficulties in providing electricity to industrial plants, refineries, businesses and households.
Before the earthquakes, "Amuay", which is of key importance for the production of fuels for the domestic market, processed about 137,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
A shortage of water for some power plants and industrial plants in the western state of Falcon, including the "Amuay" refinery, is also hampering their work, some workers said.
Other sources reported that the smaller El Palito refinery, with a capacity of 146,000 barrels per day, as well as the neighboring Moron petrochemical complex in the central part of the country, have not yet been able to fully resume operations due to unstable power supplies.
According to Venezuela's oil ministry, the earthquakes have not affected the production and export of crude oil, which provides the bulk of the country's income. However, production of fuels and petrochemicals for the domestic market may not be enough to meet demand once people return to work after the disaster if the refineries and related facilities cannot maintain normal operations.