GICC has received the following postings on Venezuelan and other energy sector problems - for the archives

Fair Use/Education Research Use

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.

You can read more here:

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002Lq0

-- GICC Sysop (y2kgicc@yahoo.com), July 18, 2000