Refinery closing could impact Venezuela cash flow

Miami Herald:
The announced shutdown of an oil refinery in the Virgin Islands will hit hard the state-run Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), a company that loses a major customer for its hard-to-place heavy crude and a major supplier of components for the gasoline consumed in the country, analysts said.
The experts added that the closing of the refinery — one of the world’s 10 largest — could also impact the cash flow of the state-owned company, as the complex, where PDVSA has a 50 percent share, is one of the clients that best pays for Venezuelan crude.
“It’s a very important customer for Venezuela,” said former state oil company manager Horacio Medina. “It is one of the places where they were sending large amounts [of crude] every month.”
The refinery, operated by the joint venture Hovensa has the capacity to process 495,000 barrels a day, 248,000 of which are supplied by PDVSA.
Hovensa, which belongs to PDVSA and the U.S. company Hess Corp., announced this week it will close the refinery in a month after accumulating losses totaling $1.3 billion in the last three years.
... 
I think it should be hard to lose money with a refinery when gas prices are so high, but it must reflect the higher cost of processing the Venezuelan crude.

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