The climate of opacity of Venezuela’s oil operations, the absence of maintenance of the facilities, the lack of training of personnel and the fear of reporting unsafe conditions, favor the increase in accidents in the sector, according to experts and sources. unions.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the state company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) was considered one of the main and safest companies in the world due to its standards of quality, efficiency, production and the absence of accidents.
The state oil company even won awards for its low accident rate. According to experts, such as former PDVSA director José Toro Hardy, that reputation changed between 2006 and 2011, when up to three accidents were reported daily, on average.
In recent times, however, researchers, analysts, unionists, and workers in the Venezuelan oil industry have noted an increase in the occurrence of situations that compromise the safety of employees, operations, and facilities alike.
On September 28, PDVSA confirmed the sinking due to “bad weather conditions” of an oil barge in Lake Maracaibo, in the west of the country, which caused the deaths of five of its crew.
In March of this year, a fire at the Cardón refinery (Falcón state) forced its shutdown, according to a report from the agency Reuters. In August, there was a similar situation at those same facilities, with the capacity to refine 310,000 barrels per day.
In July, the government confirmed the explosion and fire of a gas pipeline of the state oil company in the eastern state of Anzoátegui, without victims, due to alleged sabotage.
In January, the former PDVSA tank farm in Los Puertos de Altagracia, in the western state of Zulia, caught fire, with no victims or injuries. In March, another incident was reported at PDVSA’s oil waste wells on the Eastern Coast of the Lake.
A value from other times
Last year, the independent Observatory of Political Ecology of Venezuela recorded 8 fires in PDVSA facilities in Anzoátegui, Falcón, Monagas, Portuguesa and Zulia, but without ruling out the existence of others that have not been reported by the press.
The frequency of accidents in recent years is far from the PDVSA safety records from the beginning of the century, where milestones of thousands of hours without accidents were celebrated and published, recalls industry expert Antonio De La Cruz.
“The non-occurrence of accidents was a value of that PDVSA,” before former President Hugo Chávez fired thousands of workers and managers of the state oil company for having joined a stoppage of activities for more than two months, he explains.
De La Cruz, a non-associated analyst at the US research center Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), attributes the increase in insecurity events at PDVSA to the lack of maintenance of its facilities, the poor training of personnel and the existence of laws “opaque” for their operations.
In 2020, the ruling National Constituent Assembly approved an Anti-Blockade Law for energy activities, which allows the Venezuelan State to reserve key details of its oil operations, such as the details of its contracted services.
Iván Freites, a Venezuelan oil unionist, assures that official reports of accidents in the industry gradually stopped being published at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, during the administration of former president Hugo Chávez.
He denounces that the lack of transparency of the Venezuelan State regarding these accidents occurs due to the increase in their frequency. It states that PDVSA stopped publishing those figures after the explosion that occurred in 2012 at the Amuay refining complex, in the western state of Falcón, where 55 people died and more than 150 were injured.
Fear of arrests or forced resignations
Freites, secretary of professionals and technicians of the Single Federation of Oil Workers of Venezuela, highlights that the laws require the appointment of prevention delegates and an investigation committee of these accidents in the industry.
“That doesn’t exist. And whoever speaks goes to prison,” he says, highlighting the fear among union members and oil workers of publicly denouncing these accidents.
Last February, a retired PDVSA worker, Carlos Salazar, was arrested for criticizing Colombian businessman and Venezuelan government official, Alex Saab. After the presidential election in July, videos were released of oil workers being detained at their jobs by police and military intelligence agents.
In August, unions reported that more than 100 employees of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, as well as others in the Ministry of Petroleum and other areas of the public sector, were forced to resign for their political positions after the disputed presidential elections.
Sources with knowledge of the oil industry commented to the VOA on condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisals, that within PDVSA “the management commitment to the safety” of its workers was lost.
“The accumulation of errors in operations ends in accidents. Before these explosions and fires occurred, there were a number of signs and events that would have allowed us to warn what was going to happen,” warns one of those consulted.
In addition, they denounce flaws in the investigations of these accidents, the results of which are not shared publicly, and warn that the “pressures” to increase production in the oil fields increase the likelihood of accidents.
In 2023, PDVSA was hit by a billion-dollar corruption scandal that led to the arrest of dozens of leaders and businessmen, including the former vice president of Nicolás Maduro’s government and former oil minister, Tareck El Aissami.
However, the Venezuelan government considers that the state company is today “at the peak of its strategic recovery,” led by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, whom President Maduro put in charge of the industry weeks ago.
According to their statements, Venezuela has “an efficient, sovereign oil industry recognized internationally for its reliability and prestige is a reality.”
National oil production increased in September to an average of 943,000 barrels per day, according to official figures. In 1999, that figure exceeded 3 million barrels per day, although between 2020 and 2021 it was slightly more than half a million.
Since those years, the oil industry has been affected by a regime of economic sanctions and special licenses from the United States government, which claims to want to pressure the Venezuelan political power to facilitate a democratic transition.
Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channels YouTube, WhatsApp and to newsletter. Turn on notifications and follow us on Facebook, x and instagram.
Add Comment