The Caribbeans only base oil plant, 8,700 barrel-per-day Refineria Isla, is shut down, forcing Nynas, which markets its naphthenic production, to institute sales controls.
Jay Flint, president of Nynas USA, told Lube Report that the refinery has been shut down virtually all year, crashing repeatedly when Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., which operates the fuel and base oil plant on the island of Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles, has attempted startups.
Utilities – power – is the root cause, Flint said. Without a reliable supply of power, operations cannot continue. Until the power situation is sorted, it wont restart.
There is no official date for a restart, Flint continued.
We have exhausted our inventories at the [Refineria Isla] plant and worldwide, and were on sales control as a result for the next three months, Flint said. The controls will be product-by-product, he explained, depending on customers locations as well as on the products they buy. The program should have a minimal impact on North America, however, he added.
Refineria Isla has capacity to refine 5,000 b/d of API Group I base stocks and 3,700 b/d of naphthenic oils. Nynas markets only the naphthenic production but, said Flint, that capacity accounts for 20 percent of Nynas total sales inventory.
Longer term, Flint said he believes money will be spent on engineering at Refineria Isla. We believe its a short-term issue, he noted.
Lube Report was unable to reach PDVSA for comment by press time.