This Thursday, March 14, there was a blackout at the Paraguaná Refining Complex (CRP), which affected the Amuay and Cardón refineries, as well as the administrative buildings of the oil industry.
Irene Revilla // Correspondent lapatilla.com
According to Falcón State oil workers, it was a failure in the Cardón turbo-generator (TG-22) that produced the fluctuation that generated the collapse in Amuay and the blackout in the oil company’s administrative buildings.
The general blackout, or better known as “apagón”, occurred at 9:30 am and the reconnection only began at 3:00 pm.
By Thursday afternoon, most areas of both refineries already had electrical service. Safety protocols were followed to restart the plants operations one by one.
According to industry workers, the TG-22 had already failed before, as it requires over due maintenance, but it was never done on time and caused it to fail this Thursday.
“The equipment starts working, but there is no reliability because it is not in optimal conditions. This means that the plants take a little longer to start up because they begin to recirculate,” said an oil worker who preferred not to identify himself.
Workers evaluated and made a new diagnosis of each area before every restart to prevent further damage.
It was also learned that this blackout did not affect fuel distribution in the region.