Venezuela's PDVSA declares force majeure on gasoline exports

Bridge News Caracas--Jan 18 --20:11 GMT

Venezuela state oil firm PDVSA declared force majeure Tuesday for an unspecified period on its exports of gasoline from the Paraguana peninsula, where the company's 2 export refineries are located. The force majeure comes after PDVSA was forced to shut a gasoline-producing unit at its Amuay refinery while a similar unit at the neighboring Cardon plant was being restarted after a 2-month shutdown. * * * The Cardon and Amuay plants process 940,000 barrels per day of crude oil. Production from the plants is exported to the US and Latin America. Venezuela's other 2 refineries are operating normally but typically serve the domestic market.

http://www.petroleumworld.com/

-- RC (racambab@mailcity.com), January 19, 2000

Answers

Sorry, I forgot to add this section -- same website as above...which btw is the home page for PDVSA -- the Venezuelan national oil co. so this is the official statements page. [Note: experts were quoted on one market wire as saying it will be more like 35 days. Most PR statements understate the amount of time to get a unit back up. I can confirm that from my own family experiences. Re-starts almost never go when scheduled. I've seen restarts take months after the first announced date]

Amuay catcracker up in 24-30 days

Petroleumworld Jan-18-23:30 GMT

PDVSA catcraker in Amuay back on service on 24 to 30 days - PDVSA press release.

-- RC (racambab@mailcity.com), January 19, 2000.

There is no problem, actual or potential, with the oil supply to our country. None whatsoever. And I did not have sex with that woman.

-- Bill C. (bill_c@ovaloffice.gov), January 19, 2000.

"I did not have sex with that woman" has about as much relevance to anything as the "the crash of 1929."

Get over it. It's a new year and life moves forward.

-- (Lurkin@here.com), January 19, 2000.

lurkin... you my friend make me sick.. Are you an American??If you are.. where is your lust for the truth and desire to change or at least attempt to change that which is wrong.. Is that what the mind set is today.??"Lets move forward" taken from every corporation board room from coast to coast.. Ah.....Moving forward.. how many times have I heard that at work... translation.."lets sweep this shit under the rug and pretend it doesn;t stink"... and then everybody "buys Into it" and moves forward...how wonderful.... .. just make sure you don;t hit a tree.....

-- bank teller (nine to five@working.com), January 19, 2000.

The dumb bitch LL said:

"That could also mean two days, RC. "

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/ 000118/2v.html

Tuesday January 18, 3:08 pm Eastern Time Venezuela issues force majeure after cracker down CARACAS, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela declared a force majeure on oil exports after a huge catalytic cracker was shut down unexpectedly, regional traders said. The notice was served to clients Tuesday afternoon after the 108,000 barrel per day (bpd) cracker at the Amuay refinery was shut down on Sunday night after a system failure. One trader said the unit would remain shut for 20-30 days, while another said it would shut for 35 days. It produces about 70,000 bpd of high octane gasoline for export and also some gas oil. Venezuela is the largest supplier of crude oil and refined products to the United States, and the Amuay cracker is the country's largest such unit. The unit normally produces several types of export gasoline, particularly popular on the the U.S. Atlantic coast, including RFG, 87 octane unleaded and 95 octane."

I understand this one refinery accounts for 1/3 of our domestic gasoline supply.

-- Hello (@ .), January 19, 2000.

Hello All,

I received the following correspondence that is pertinent to this topic:

"There are ALWAYS problems in the oil industry. It's usually different problems on different days, with different companies....

It has ALWAYS been this way, it will ALWAYS continue to be this way.

People fix the problems relatively quickly because they know their company needs to survive. They have the knowledge and resources to fix the problems

Patrick, honest they do!

Buddy, we don't need to worry about a refinery in Vensuela, or Alaska, or anywhere else, because WE WILL STILL HAVE OIL. Even if one entire region refused to sell us oil, it doesn't matter. There are a lot of places we can get oil.

In conclusion, it doesn't matter if a few refineries have a problem (unless, I suppose, you work for those companies!)

Please stop worring about it.

Best Regards, "

-- Patrick21 (sea_stars1@mailexcite.com), January 19, 2000.

I don't think my interest in staying informed on oil is 'worrying.' What I'm curious about is whether 1999's rise in oil and gasoline prices might finally be at an end or whether prices are going to keep rising.

Rising oil and gasoline prices aren't good for the stock market. Look at 1973-75.

-- Now usually a (lurker@at.home), January 19, 2000.

Will we have oil? That is not really the question. At what price will we have oil? That IS the question. Obviously the price goes up (remember the supply/demand thingy?) if we cannot get oil from an 'entire region' (say South America). Please do not fool yourself into thinking the price of oil is not important (just as long as we have it) or that the price will not go up if there is a shortfall (4-8%).

BTW, you should be beyond the point of starting to worry. Now, please redouble your efforts. I also want to point out that Patrick seems to have very little understanding of the fundamental economic principles that make markets work.

-- Bugeye (Lurker@new.com), January 19, 2000.

Bugeye, I take strong offense to your statement:

"I also want to point out that Patrick seems to have very little understanding of the fundamental economic principles that make markets work."

Rather might I suggest: "...little understanding of the fundamental economic _______(fill in blank)."

-- just being an asshole (--@--.com), January 19, 2000.

Ah, the never ending details. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, RC.

Does anyone know what percentage of our gasoline comes from Venezuela? (I recall we receive 17% of our total oil from Venz, but that most of it is crude.)

Anyone have reason to question whether the Cardon plant really is about to come back on line, assuming the restart is successful?

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), January 19, 2000.

I seem to remember that we use millions of b/day gasoline with perhaps an import load of 800K b/day, of which 40% comes form the venz. The venz production would seem to be an insignificant amount to the domestic market. However, we are in near equilibrium w/our suppliers - there is a very long equation linking oil availability to world gasoline production and our domestic concerns. Suffice to say, any worldwide outage, no matter how small, will have an impact on our prices if it goes on for a sufficient time (3-6 weeks: the venz have quite a large facility down there).

-- Bugeye (New@lurker.com), January 19, 2000.

The Venzuela gasoline export issue is about the equivalent of 3 or 4 moderate sized refineries shutting down all at once for 4 to 5 weeks. Remember, according to US Dept of Energy we have 95 refineries operating here in the US. So essentially while seemingly minor, the fact remains, the markets are tight and refiners capacity capabilities are suddenly and inexplicably shrinking for the time being. We've got a half dozen refineries down or nearly down, and many others limping along. From what I've been able to gather, perhaps as much as 70% of the refineries here are experiencing some levels of problems. In fact, I only know of 9 at the moment that I am confident are or have not so far experienced any glitches related to Y2K.

Keep in mind that January is off-season and usually the only real problems with refiners historically in January is all weather related to severe cold weather. The level of glitches we're seeing not just in refining, but pipelines and oilfields is unprecedented.

-- RC (racambab@mailcity.com), January 19, 2000.