Venezuela Amuay to ship export RFG cargo Friday

Reuters, 05.12.03, 4:53 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela, May 12 (Reuters) - Venezuela's giant Amuay-Cardon refinery on Friday will export its first cargo of reformulated gasoline (RFG) to the United States since a crippling oil strike earlier this year, a spokesman for Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) said on Monday.

"The ship is going to leave on Friday," the refinery spokesman said, adding the shipment was for 300,000 barrels of RFG.

U.S. traders have said they will be watching the cargo closely to determine if the cleaner burning gasoline meets specifications. Venezuela in recent weeks has sold two cargoes of RFG as conventional gasoline because it was not up to specifications.

The 940,000 barrel per day (bpd) Amuay-Cardon plant, Venezuela's largest export refinery, has not exported RFG since early December when foes of President Hugo Chavez began a two month oil strike.

Amuay-Cardon officials said last week that exports of RFG would be restarted by Wednesday. RFG, used in parts of the United States to combat smog, makes up roughly a third of the 9 million bpd of gasoline consumed in the United States.

On Tuesday, PDVSA also plans to restart a 84,000 bpd hydrodesulphurisation unit at Amuay shut late April due to a fire, the spokesman added.

Venezuela, a top supplier of RFG to the United States, fired over 18,000 employees for participating in the strike and used replacement workers and troops to restart its 1.3 million bpd domestic refining system.