Venezuela oil fire under control
A fire at a Venezuelan oil refinery sparked by a lighting storm Wednesday night was under control as of late Thursday, the Malaysian national news agency Bernama reports.
Two fuel tanks at the El Palito processing plant in Puerto Cabello caught fire, but no one was injured and the plant was able to continue operations.
"We are processing 135,000 barrels a day of crude oil, which is the normal capacity. All the processing plants are operating normally," said Asdrubal Chavez, vice president of refining, trade and supply at the state-owned oil company PDVSA, which runs the plant.
Nonetheless, the fire, along with concerns about Middle Eastern instability, pushed crude prices toward $93 a barrel on Friday, according to Reuters.
The El Palito fire comes on the heels of a gas explosion last month at Amuay, Venezuela’s largest refinery that killed 48 people.
That explosion took place on Aug. 25, and the plant began resuming operations at the start of September.
This week’s fire was much less serious, with one of the tanks extinguished within hours and the other put under control not long after, but critics of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez seized on the event to criticize the government for investing too little in the oil industry and diverting too much crude revenue to social programs, Reuters reports.
About 120 firemen assisted by volunteers were at the refinery to handle the blaze, which officials said never presented a threat to local communities.