23. 1. 31.

오후 4:29 Chronology: Pump collapse, leak caused Venezuela refinery blast | Reuters

NOW RE ADI NG Chronology: Pump collapse, leak caused Venezuela refinery blast

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SEPTEMBER 10, 2013 / 5:05 AM / UPDATED 9 YEARS AGO

Chronology: Pump collapse, leak caused Venezuela refinery

blast

By Marianna Parraga

(Reuters) - State-run oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela's PDVSA.UL 645,000 barrel-per-day

(bpd) Amuay refinery is struggling to recover from a 2012 explosion that killed 47 people in
one of the world's worst refinery disasters in decades.

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a storage tank at Amuay refinery in Paraguana August 28, 2012.
REUTERS/Miraflores Palace

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-venezuela-refinery-idUSBRE9880Z820130909 1/5
23. 1. 31. 오후 4:29 Chronology: Pump collapse, leak caused Venezuela refinery blast | Reuters

A year
NOW after
RE ADI the mishap,
NG Chronology: Pumpthe precise
collapse, cause
leak caused of therefinery
Venezuela explosion
blast is still under study and has become

part of the ongoing political battle between the government and the opposition in the highly
polarized country.

Refinery output in Venezuela - which has the world’s largest oil reserves - plummeted after
the accident, prompting the country to greatly increase its imports of gasoline. Those imports
have hurt the country’s external accounts.

Average production at the refinery was down by 170,000 bpd at 310,000 bpd after the fire
until repairs were completed in April. It is now running around 435,000 bpd, or 68 percent of
capacity.

The socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro, who was elected this year after the
death of his longtime political mentor, Hugo Chavez, released a report on Monday blaming
sabotage for the deadly explosion and saying that several bolts had been intentionally
removed from a gas pump.

A separate technical report done by the Center for Energy Orientation in Venezuela
(COENER), which was commissioned by opposition lawmakers, agrees with the government
that a massive leak of propane that lasted almost 70 minutes caused the accident, but
COENER attributes it to poor maintenance.

COENER estimates that the total damages caused by the explosion to Amuay’s facilities
represent $1.84 billion - 67 percent more than the government’s calculation of $1.1 billion -
including the losses caused by the refinery’s shutdown for almost a week and the shuttering
of the CDU for eight months.

The following is the reconstruction of the events leading to the explosion, according to the
COENER report and details given by Venezuela’s Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez:

- June 2012: A pump known as P-200 in a storage area of the Amuay refinery in Venezuela’s
Paraguana Refinery Complex develops a leak and is fixed. COENER says the same pump
eventually failed twice, but the government said pump tied to the explosion was different
than the one that failed in June.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-venezuela-refinery-idUSBRE9880Z820130909 2/5
23. 1. 31. 오후 4:29 Chronology: Pump collapse, leak caused Venezuela refinery blast | Reuters

-NOW
August 24,Chronology:
RE ADI NG 2012, morning: Hundreds
Pump collapse, leak causedof peoplerefinery
Venezuela nearblast
the Amuay refinery complain of a
strong “rotten egg” smell. That is usually a sign of the presence of hydrogen sulfide (H2S)
and mercaptans (RSH). They are components found in olefins - propane, butane and
isobutane.

- August 24, noon: The neighboring Puramin C.A. lubricant plant orders its workers to
evacuate because of a high concentration of hydrogen sulfide. A gas detector inside the
Puramin plant also finds a high concentration of methane.

- August 24, 11:30 p.m.: The neighboring 310,000 bpd Cardon refinery reports that the
pumping of propane from a storage area of the Amuay refinery known as Block 23, which
holds gas spheres, had lost concentration of hydrogen sulfide.

- August 25, midnight: The Cardon refinery reports a total loss of pressure during the
pumping of olefins from Amuay.

Two operators at the Amuay refinery take the unusual step of leaving an isolated control
booth to go outside and visually inspect the pump number 2601. They detect a hydrocarbon
cloud around it that turned out to be propane.

They realize they cannot stop the leak, call to warn firefighters, and one of them runs looking
for a fire-proof suit. Investigators think he wanted to return to try to manually shut off the
valve of the propane sphere.

Workers at the Puramin plant, a half-mile away, report that they can see the vapor cloud at
the Amuay refinery. Investigators think heavy rains during the day prevent the cloud from
rising and keep it close to the ground.

The cloud continues to grow until 1:07 a.m., wafting through the Amuay facilities, a military
post, a storage patio, Puramin’s buildings and the nearby neighborhoods.

The petroleum ministry says a total volume of 3,570 equivalent barrels of olefins leaked
massively and abruptly through a 2.9-inch hole in the pump, releasing around 22 percent of
the propane in its spherical storage tank.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-venezuela-refinery-idUSBRE9880Z820130909 3/5
23. 1. 31. 오후 4:29 Chronology: Pump collapse, leak caused Venezuela refinery blast | Reuters

A military
NOW RE ADI NGvehicle leaves
Chronology: Pump the post
collapse, after
leak being
caused warned
Venezuela refineryabout
blast the leak. Its engine - allegedly

powered by diesel - could have become the ignition point for the explosion at 1:07 a.m.
Alarms designed to warn people of emergencies never rang.

The explosion and fire completely incinerate the military post, the Puramin plant, part of a
neighboring hydrogen plant, several residential areas, several storage areas for fuels and
gases, and LPG facilities.

The fire rapidly expands to 11 storage tanks containing isobutane, butane, crude, naphtha,
alkylate and vacuum gasoil. The tanks release 1.54 million barrels of fuels, a release of
500,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the total emissions from vehicles in
the capital city of Caracas over two weeks.

Several pumps, pipelines and other facilities are also affected. Automated water spray systems
do not work properly.

In addition to storage spheres and tanks, a critical 185,000 bpd crude distillation unit is
severely damaged.

As many as 3,400 houses, restaurants, schools and others structures were destroyed or
damaged.

Within hours, firefighters extinguish the flames at 9 of the 11 tanks. They spray water over
two tanks still on fire to cool them down.

Houses are evacuated and 35 injured people are taken to hospitals. Dozens of people are
reported as disappeared.

Hours later, PDVSA combines the water with foam. The combined use of these two is not
recommended by firefighters.

- August 27 - The heavy volume of foam and water directed at the storage tanks causes the
dome of one tank to collapse, causing a fire to break out on a third tank.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-venezuela-refinery-idUSBRE9880Z820130909 4/5
23. 1. 31. 오후 4:29 Chronology: Pump collapse, leak caused Venezuela refinery blast | Reuters

-NOW
August 28 Chronology:
RE ADI NG - Firefighters finallyleak
Pump collapse, quash the
caused last ofrefinery
Venezuela the flames,
blast some 96 hours after the
explosion.

Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago and Eyanir Chinea in Caracas; Editing by Erwin Seba, Terry Wade
and Jim Marshall

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