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 Blast at Venezuela oil refinery kills 19 
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Post Blast at Venezuela oil refinery kills 19
By the CNN Wire Staff

updated 9:35 AM EDT, Sat August 25, 2012

(CNN) -- An explosion rocked the Amuay oil refinery in northwestern Venezuela, killing at least 19 people, including a 10-year-old boy, the governor of Falcon state said Saturday.

At least 53 were injured, said Gov. Stella Lugo, according to the state-run AVN news agency. "People are very scared," he said. "They evacuated the areas that had to be evacuated, but the situation, as the technicians are telling within the refinery, is controlled."

The incident occurred at 1:11 a.m. when "we had a release of gas whose origin we are going to determine," Rafael Ramirez, president of the state-owned petroleum company PDVSA, said on the official Venezuelan Television. "The gas generated a cloud that then exploded and provoked fires in at least two tanks of the refinery and in the surrounding areas."

snip

See photo and read more here: http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/25/world/americas/venezuela-refinery-blast/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

There goes a million barrels of oil a day.

Who's gonna pay for this? No American company and very few European companies, that's for sure.

The Chinese/Cubans?

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The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. - FDR


Sat Aug 25, 2012 6:49 am
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Post Re: Blast at Venezuela oil refinery kills 19
Venezuela oil blast evidence of deteriorating infrastructure


A Saturday explosion at Venezuela's Amuay refinery, the country's largest, claimed at least 39 lives. Engineers and oil executives say the blast is fresh evidence of deteriorating infrastructure in the country with the world's largest proven oil reserves.

By Andrew Rosati, Contributor / August 26, 2012

Venezuelan Vice President Elías Jaua said Saturday evening the death toll had reached at least 39 after a blast tore through the country’s biggest oil refinery, Amuay in Falcon state. :candle

Early reports indicated the explosion, at around 1:15 AM, was caused by a gas leak. The blast damaged nearby homes and destroyed a neighboring National Guard outpost. President Hugo Chávez expressed his “profound grief,” on state television, declaring three days of mourning.

Opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles also showed support for the victims, posting on his Twitter account: “We ask Almighty God for the recovery of all those injured in the accident.”

The tragedy, following calamitous oil spills in February, reignited public debate over safety standards at government oil producer Petróleos de Venezuela (Petroleum of Venezuela, or PDSVA) six weeks before Venezuela’s October 7 presidential election. Analysts and industry professionals have long voiced concerns over the overall deterioration of the company.

“There are so many accidents, so many spills that never used to happen, the quality of management has to be bad,” says Heraldo Sifontes, ex-manager of refining for Lagoven (a former PDVSA affiliate). Sifontes, who managed the Amuay refinery for seven years, pointed out that there will always be accidents in refining, “however, the issue is the frequency you have of these types of problems.”

Prior to Saturday’s tragedy, PDVSA had registered 19 accidents in the first half of 2012, including explosions, oil spills, and operational failures that resulted in the injury of 20 workers. A Feb. 4 spill in Monagas state lasted 40 hours before a broken pipeline was sealed, with an estimated 80,000 barrels of crude oil contaminating the local area and the Guarapiche River.

Yet Saturday’s carnage left Sifontes dumbfounded. “I’ve never seen an accident like this one.”

snip

According to Sánchez, based on official PDVSA data, the company’s refineries are now operating at 65 percent of capacity due to lack of maintenance and investment

snip

Read more here: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2012/0826/Venezuela-oil-blast-evidence-of-deteriorating-infrastructure

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Sun Aug 26, 2012 8:20 am
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