Venezuela’s PDVSA confirms oil leak into sea near refinery complex

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA [PDVSA.UL] on Saturday confirmed an oil leak from an oil line and a gas pipeline into the Caribbean Sea near the largest refining center in the country, but said it had begun repair and cleanup efforts.

PDVSA discovered the spill in the Golfete de Coro area in Falcon state during an aerial inspection, a statement from the company said, adding that despite the leak it guaranteed it will continue to supply crude to the Paraguana Refining Complex (CRP), which includes the Amuay and Cardon refineries.

Both Amuay and Cardon have experienced multiple outages in recent years that the opposition blames on mismanagement and lack of maintenance.