The catalytic cracker at Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA's 645,000 barrel per day (bpd) Amuay refinery was halted on Thursday, and the refinery was operating at around 335,000 bpd, according to a union leader. The cat crackers at the adjacent Cardon refinery and the El Palito refinery were also down, said Ivan Freites, a union leader and fierce government critic.
Output has dropped at the crisis-hit Opec country's refineries in recent months, with critics blaming shortages of spare parts, lack of maintenance, and a shaky electrical grid. A worker at Amuay confirmed the stoppage. "Amuay's catalytic cracker has not been working properly for a few weeks," he said. "They've been trying to get it working since last weekend but that didn't work and it failed this week." PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has launched purchase tenders for products as it tries to offset power outages and equipment failures.