Death Toll Rises at Venezuela Refinery - WSJ.com
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Daniela Primera/Associated Press Fire rose over the Amuay refinery near Punto Fijo, Venezuela, Saturday.
CARACAS, Venezuela—A gas leak caused a major explosion at Venezuela's Amuay refinery, the oil-rich country's largest facility, leaving 39 people dead early Saturday in the worst accident to hit the OPEC nation in years.
The death toll rose steadily throughout the day from initial government estimates given at dawn, and more than 80 people were taken to hospitals after the blast at the 640,000 barrel-a-day refinery, state and local union officials said.
The accident is likely to become a thorn in the side of President Hugo Chavez as he seeks re-election on Oct. 7. After 13 years at the helm, the populist leader is facing his toughest electoral opponent—a young former state governor, Henrique Capriles. At least one prominent pollster has shown the two in a close race.
Critics charge that a rising number of accidents at oil facilities is the result of insufficient investments in industry maintenance by the Chavez administration. State energy monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela, or PdVSA, diverts large portions of revenue to finance social programs that have become iconic under Mr. Chavez's leadership and the company has previously admitted to having delayed maintenance efforts at several large refining plants last year.
"This is the biggest disaster in recent memory," said Eddie Ramirez, national coordinator of Gente de Petroleo, an industry advocacy group that has been critical of the government's management of PdVSA. "The unfortunate event could have been a lot worse had it happened during the day" as more workers would have been present, Mr. Ramirez added.
Vice President Elias Jaua, in a televised press conference Saturday night, said 18 of those killed were members of the National Guard stationed near the refinery, 15 were civilians and six bodies remained unidentified. Buildings and houses around the plant were destroyed by the explosion, authorities said.
Speaking on state television network VTV, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez acknowledged "severe damage" to the Amuay refinery and the surrounding area, including a post used by the National Guard. Large amounts of black smoke could be seen billowing from the plant as the minister and other top officials addressed the nation on television from outside the site.
Jesus Luongo, a PdVSA director in charge of refining operations, rejected that inadequate maintenance was the reason for Saturday's blast. "We have a rigorous maintenance program," Mr. Luongo said. He added that PdVSA has spent north of $6 billion in maintenance of refineries over the last three years.
The explosion, which one union official said may have started in the propane and butane gas unit of the refinery, forced the shutdown of Amuay. The facility is slated to be reopened in two days.
"There was a big explosion at 1:05 a.m. [local time] that people thought was a tremor, an earthquake," said Stella Lugo, the local state governor. She called on residents to remain calm, adding that the situation was under control and "we have evacuated all the areas that need to be evacuated."
Photos
Fire is seen after the explosion at Amuay oil refinery.
Officials said there was no immediate threat of another explosion at the site and that a fire that resulted from the initial blast had been contained.
In recent years, Amuay, along with other major refineries in Venezuela, have experienced chronic mishaps and operational delays, which, some analysts say, will weigh on the government's ambitious plans to sharply increase oil output in coming years.
The oil minister said he had ordered an investigation into the explosion. He noted that nine crude-oil-storage tanks had been destroyed in the incident but added that domestic fuel supplies wouldn't be disrupted.
"It's a very serious situation…this never happened before at our refinery," said Ivan Freites, a local leader of the oil workers union.
Problems with Venezuela's power grid and oil industry have become common in recent years. While detractors from the government often attribute the resource-rich country's woes to negligence and underinvestment, supporters of the president have many times pointed the finger at saboteurs looking to destabilize Mr. Chavez's administration.
On Saturday, Miguel Perez Pirela, a prominent television show host on VTV raised the possibility of parties opposed to the government being responsible for the Amuay disaster. "You can't throw out sabotage in Amuay," he said through the social media network Twitter.
Amuay is part of Venezuela's Paraguana Refining Complex, located in the northwestern state of Falcon, around 330 miles from Caracas. PdVSA announced in April it had concluded maintenance efforts at Amuay's catalytic cracker unit, which was supposed to allow for "reliable operations for the next four years."
In an annual report submitted to the National Assembly in March, PdVSA said a series of refinery-upkeep efforts last year were delayed until 2012 due to what it called the "low availability of materials." Amuay was among the facilities that had maintenance delayed.
In 1993, an explosion at a gas plant in Lake Maracaibo killed 13 workers.
In 2010, the Aban Pearl, an offshore rig operated by PdVSA, sank in the Caribbean Sea but all workers at the site were rescued.
Write to Kejal Vyas at kejal.vyas@dowjones.com
(via Instapaper)
Victor Cuvo, Attorney at Law
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