Firefighters among the more than 20 injured in the La Salina oil terminal fire in Venezuela
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A massive fire at Venezuela’s La Salina oil terminal, operated by state-run PDVSA, injured at least 21 people on Tuesday, including workers, firefighters, and local residents, authorities said.
The fire on October 14, which erupted during a storm and continued into the night, engulfed a crude storage tank at the facility near Cabimas, on the shores of Lake Maracaibo.
According to videos reviewed by Reuters, two explosions along with intense heat compromised the tank's structure.
"Many individuals were exposed to intense heat. So far, we've counted 21 with minor injuries, but that number could rise," said Mufid Houmeidan, chief of Cabimas' fire department. Despite requests, PDVSA has not issued a statement.
Despite efforts to control the fire, it took firefighters more than 24 hours to completely extinguish it. On Wednesday, the interior ministry and the Cabimas Fire Department declared the fire “completely extinguished”, Marine Insights reported.
The number of injuries varies slightly between sources, between 18 injured and up to 24, as reported by MarineInsights.com.
According to local reports, the firefighting teams were running low on the foam required to combat oil-related fires. The tank held approximately 75,000 barrels of oil, and collapsed as seen in multiple videos, with onlookers standing nearby. A subsequent explosion was heard, leading to an even larger column of fire.
“The fire led to a boil over,” a source explained, referring to the dramatic increase in flames caught on video. Injured individuals were taken to a PDVSA hospital, though there were no immediate reports of fatalities.
The neighbouring Bajo Grande terminal, jointly used by PDVSA and Chevron to export crude and fuel, was not affected by the incident, according to sources familiar with the operations.
Reuters reports that the La Salina terminal is crucial for moving crude oil and fuel between domestic ports, and incidents like this are increasingly common at PDVSA sites, plagued by infrastructure deterioration. Fires, power outages, and other problems frequently disrupt operations at oil production sites, refineries, and terminals across the country.
As reported by OilPrice.com, Venezuela’s oil industry, weakened by U.S. sanctions and years of underinvestment, has shown resilience with a recent increase in production. This growth is partly due to the U.S. allowing some companies to resume operations with PDVSA amidst a global shortage of heavy crude caused by sanctions on Russian oil.
Venezuela’s oil output has steadily risen, from around 750,000 barrels per day (bpd) at the start of the year to over 871,000 bpd by the third quarter, with state sources claiming even higher figures. This is still far below the 3.2 million bpd the country produced in 2000, according to the latest secondary-source data from OPEC.