Venezuela's Refineries Down to 31% of Crude Processing Capacity

• Venezuela’s refining network is operating well below capacity, processing around 399,000 barrels per day (bpd), or roughly 31% of its 1.29 million-bpd installed capacity, marking a decline from about 35% in February as state-owned oil and gas company of Venezuela Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) continues to struggle with maintaining stable operations after restarting multiple units.
• This weaker performance comes despite a gradual recovery in oil production and exports following a supply agreement with the U.S. earlier in the year. However, persistent constraints, including unreliable electricity supply, frequent power outages, and the need for extensive maintenance and repairs across ageing infrastructure, continue to limit the country’s ability to restore refining activity to higher levels.
• PDVSA has recently focused on restarting key fuel-processing units across its refinery network, but operational reliability remains weak. In particular, several fluid catalytic cracking units, which are critical for converting crude into higher-value fuels like gasoline, have been unable to run continuously, leading to unstable output and limiting overall refining efficiency.
• At the Paraguana Refining Centre, the country’s largest facility with a capacity of about 955,000 bpd, four crude distillation units are currently active and processing approximately 237,000 bpd of oil. However, only one fluid catalytic cracking unit is in operation, highlighting significant downstream bottlenecks that constrain fuel output despite crude throughput.
• At the Puerto la Cruz refinery, two crude distillation units are operating and processing about 82,000 bpd, while at the smaller El Palito refinery, one crude unit is active, processing roughly 80,000 bpd, alongside a single operational catalytic cracking unit. These partial operations reflect a broader pattern of intermittent functionality across the refining system rather than sustained recovery.
• Despite this limited recovery, Venezuela continues to face recurring risks of domestic fuel shortages, a problem that has historically led to long queues at petrol stations during periods of tight supply. To mitigate these constraints, PDVSA has been importing naphtha under U.S. authorisations to help blend and supplement domestic fuel production, underscoring continued dependence on external inputs to stabilise fuel supply.

(Source: Reuters)