Overview
- The blast that hit the Lamargas gas compression plant on Lake Maracaibo Friday left six workers injured, PDVSA said.
- Company crews activated safety protocols, evacuated staff, and after hours of work reported the fire extinguished in the affected section of the facility, which compresses gas to move it through pipelines.
- Two of the injured were taken to a hospital in Maracaibo and four were transported by boat to a pier, with their conditions not detailed, according to EFE reporting cited by CNN en Español.
- PDVSA formed a technical committee to determine the cause, and local outlets floated unverified scenarios including a ruptured pipeline or failures in gas scrubbers that could have vented oil onto the lake surface.
- The state oil firm said operations in western Venezuela will continue, a pledge that comes as the government begins a broad effort to restructure external debt that includes PDVSA obligations.