Page 7 - DMEA Week 06 2023
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DMEA COMPANIES DMEA
Iranian feedstock and expertise
heading for Venezuela
IRAN THE National Iranian Oil Refining and Distri- Paraguana, which comprises the Amuay and
bution Co. (NIORDC) will soon begin a 100- Cardon refineries, was operated at just 25% in
day process to rehabilitate Venezuela’s largest January despite the restart of Amuay’s catalytic
refining complex, restoring its crude distillation cracker.
capacity. Iran will lead on the procurement of parts,
Sources mentioned that Petroleos de Ven- installation and inspection before handling the
ezuela (PDVSA) and NIORDC would look to refinery’s operations back to PDVSA.
boost fuel output at the Paraguana Refining The planned distillation unit overhaul will
Center. This would allow Venezuela to begin combine Chinese and Iranian parts and equip-
to move away from its reliance on US refining ment in refineries originally built using US
technologies. technology. The integration of the new and old
Venezuela has struggled in recent years to components is considered to be a significant
produce enough gasoline and diesel owing to challenge but if the revamp succeeds, a larger
refinery outages, despite holding the world’s overhaul may well be anticipated in 2024 and
largest crude reserves. A further lack of invest- 2025.
ment and US sanctions have meant that even Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirab-
importing has been difficult. dollahian arrived in Caracas last week to meet
Long lines at fuel stations have been common Venezuelan Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami,
since 2020. according to tweets from the Iranian embassy in
Tehran and Caracas have strengthened bilat- Caracas and Venezuela’s Oil Ministry.
eral relations in recent years, providing crude Speaking to Reuters, Caracas-based energy
and condensate as well as parts and feedstock expert Nelson Hernandez said: “If the distilla-
for Venezuela’s ageing refining facilities, which tion plants do not work, the refinery does not
have a combined throughput capacity of 1.3mln work. The whole facilities need to pass through
barrels per day (bpd). a revamp or a major maintenance programme.”
In May, a unit of NIORDC signed a $119mln A project to restore the complex’s dilapi-
contract with PDVSA to repair the 146,000bpd dated power supply is also planned as part of the
El Palito in central Venezuela – the country’s revamp, according to the sources.
smallest refinery. While that project is under- Crude supply to Amuay and Cardon could be
way, a $498mln deal is expected to be signed modified to increase transportation fuel output,
shortly for the companies to also revamp the as NIORDC did at El Palito, where Iranian oil
955,000bpd Paraguana refinery complex on was added to the refinery’s feedstock.
the coast of western Venezuela. The Paraguana Iran’s technicians also are considering adding
revamp project will reportedly allow NIORDC upgraded crude from the Petromonagas project,
to hire contractors and outsource work to repair a PDVSA joint venture with a Russian state oil
five of the complex’s nine distillation units. company.
Week 06 09•February•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P7
