[ad_1]
Valery Sharifulin | TASS | Getty Images
A gas station of PDVSA, the oil and gas company owned by the Venezuelan state.
A fire on Tuesday hit a crude oil pumping station in the Orinoco Belt region of Venezuela, said the national oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).
The fire at the Ero pumping station, capable of carrying 300,000 barrels of oil a day, was controlled and no one was injured, the company said in a statement. But the incident will affect the transportation of crude oil by pipeline, a source told the company, without providing more details.
The incident comes a few weeks after the United States imposed sanctions on PDVSA in an attempt to eliminate socialist president Nicolas Maduro from power. Venezuela, a founding member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has the largest crude oil reserves in the world, but its production has collapsed in a context of mismanagement and economic crisis.
In the statement, PDVSA said that the fire had been caused by "an act of sabotage perpetrated by the right-wing opposition".
According to PDVSA, the Ero station receives crude from its Petrocarabobo oilfield, a joint venture with Spain's Repsol, and its Petroindependencia joint venture, which is 34% owned by Chevron.
PDVSA's facilities for oil and fuel production, refining and transportation are often outages due to lack of spare parts and delayed maintenance after years of under-investment.
Source link
