Venezuela's Second-Largest Refinery, Cardon, Halted by Fire as a Gas Line Burns and Staff Evacuate
CARABEDA (PARAGUANA) - Venezuela's second-largest refinery, Cardon, was halted on Tuesday, October 6, after a fire at one of its units. Reuters, citing three sources with knowledge of the matter, reported that a gas line passing through the unit that produces gas oil opened up, the entire refinery stopped, and its boilers were halted. One source said the blaze was already under control, while two reported that personnel had been evacuated.
Cardon has a processing capacity of 310,000 barrels per day and forms part of the PDVSA-operated Paraguana Refining Center, whose total capacity is 955,000 bpd. Videos posted on social media showed huge columns of flames and smoke billowing from the refinery; Reuters said it could not immediately verify the footage, though other sources reported seeing flames and smoke at the plant. PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It was not Cardon's first interruption this year: last month, output at a crude distillation unit and the fluid catalytic cracker were halted due to insufficient feedstock. Fires, power interruptions and outages are common across Venezuela's refineries, and years of underinvestment have made the refining system one of the weakest links in the energy recovery.
The shutdown comes at a sensitive moment: PDVSA is publicly targeting higher refinery runs by 2027, while domestic gasoline supply currently rests on actual processing of about 350,000 bpd nationwide. How quickly Cardon restarts after the fire is controlled - and how much damage the unit sustained - will directly affect fuel supply and daily life in Venezuela.
Sources: Compiled from Reuters reporting of October 6, 2026, on the Cardon refinery fire and shutdown.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 帕拉瓜纳炼油中心的阿穆艾炼油厂（与卡尔登同属该炼油中心），Génesis García 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0（Wikimedia Commons）
