Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. plans this week to resume production at the Refineria Isla naphthenic base oil refinery on Curacao, according to PdVSAs joint venture transport company, Nynas.
Nynas, a leading global supplier of naphthenics, has been eagerly awaiting the reopening since last months end of the strike that crippled Venezuelas oil industry this winter. But thecompany faces another six to eight weeks of restricted supply as its own Nynashamn, Sweden, refinery is now preparing to close for a maintenance turnaround.
We stopped taking new customers some time ago and we dont expect to start doing so again until May, Naphthenics Supply Manager Anders Nilsson said during a telephone interview yesterday. After that we hope to move forward with no more breaks.
The 3,800-barrel-per-day Curacao refinery is owned by the government of the Netherland Antilles but is operated by PdVSA. It closed in December because of the general strike that PdVSA workers joined, briefly resumed operations in January, then closed again.
Without the barrels from Curacao, Nynas, a 50-50 joint venture between PdVSA and Finnish oil company Fortum, was forced to halt the spot sales that normally constitute a significant portion of its business. Officials said the company was able to supply contract customers, partly by buying from other suppliers.
Nynas base oil refinery in Sweden has approximately twice as much capacity as Refineria Isla.
Nilsson said management expects the Curacao base oil plant to operate at approximately 75 percent of normal levels when it first reopens. The plant had been scheduled to undergo its own turnaround at the time of the strike but the maintenance was not performed. Nilsson said PdVSA may try to delay the work for a year.