A fire hit a crude pumping station in northeastern Venezuela early on Friday, knocking some 37,000 barrels per day of oil production offline, according to two people with knowledge of the incident and a document seen by Reuters.
The fire resulted from an explosion that took place at the plant
around 2:30 in the morning at the Carito pumping station in the Punta de Mata light oil field in Monagas state, according to the document. There were no immediate reports of injuries, and emergency personnel arrived on the scene.
The incident comes as a dramatic plunge in oil prices in recent weeks, driven by a drop in demand due to the spread of the new coronavirus and a price war between top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, already threatened to further reduce oil production at Venezuela's beleaguered state oil company, PDVSA.
The average value of a basket of various grades of Venezuelan crude fell 28% to 137.08 Chinese yuan, or $19.53, in the week of March 16-20, the oil ministry said on Friday. President Nicolas Maduro said earlier this week that the value of Venezuelan oil was below the costs of production.
PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.
The Carito station has the capacity to transport some 200,000 bpd but had only been transporting around 40,000 bpd, according to one of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Before the incident, Venezuela's northeastern fields had been producing around 200,000 bpd in March, according to a separate document seen by Reuters and a source with knowledge of PDVSA's operations. That was down from around 230,000 bpd in January.
In the heavy oil Orinoco oil belt further south, production fell to some 200,000 bpd this week, according to four people with knowledge of the matter, down from more than 400,000 bpd in January.
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