Venezuela's PDVSA controlling fire at Cardon refinery's cracker
Venezuela's state-run PDVSA on Wednesday was trying to control a large fire at the 310,000-bpd Cardon refinery's fluid catalytic cracker, according to eight workers from the oil company and videos seen by media.
The company was restarting that unit, following a blackout that left the entire refinery without power earlier this month and other smaller power interruptions.
PDVSA did not immediately reply to a request for comment. No injuries have been reported.
A thick cloud of black smoke emerged from the unit, close to a storage tank, according to one of the videos. It was not immediately clear where exactly the fire erupted, but two of the sources said it was at a residual fuel trench.
Power outages and fires are frequent at PDVSA's deteriorated refineries, which typically work at a fraction of capacity. Cardon was processing some 76,000 bpd of crude before the incident, one of the workers said.
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