Venezuela's Cardon refinery halted amid fire, sources say

Venezuela's ​Cardon refinery, the country's second ​largest, has been ‌halted amid ​a fire at one of its units, three sources with knowledge ‌of the matter said on Tuesday.

A gas line that passes through the unit of the refinery that produces gas ‌oil opened and the entire refinery is stopped, ‌two sources said . Another also said the refinery was halted, as were its boilers. One source said the blaze was already under ⁠control, while two ​reported personnel ⁠had been evacuated.

State oil company PDVSA did not immediately respond ⁠to a request for comment about the state of the ​310,000 barrel-per-day refinery, which is part of the PDVSA-operated 955,000-bpd ⁠Paraguana Refining Center. Videos posted on social media showed huge ⁠columns ​of flames and smoke billowing from the refinery. Reuters could not immediately verify the content of the ⁠videos but other sources reported seeing flames and smoke at the ⁠refinery.

Output ⁠at a crude distillation unit and the fluid catalytic cracker were halted at the ‌refinery ‌last month due to insufficient feedstock. (Reporting ​by Reuters)