The four heavy crude upgraders at the Orinoco Oil Belt are producing approximately 450,000 barrels per day (bpd), which is 70 percent of their installed capacity, said on Wednesday a vice president of state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa).
| Incompetence, lack of maintenance, and a crazy man as a leader will do that ... |
Oil production in the Orinoco Oil Belt declined amidst a number of scheduled or fortuitous stoppages in the upgrading plants, whose production capacity is about 620,000 bpd of heavy crude for transformation into a lighter product for export.
"Last month, between late April and early May, Petroanzoátegui's upgrader was shut down for about eight days," Eulogio del Pino, Pdvsa's Vice President of Exploration and Production, told Reuters. |