Venezuela is investing millions of bolivars in its refineries to replace American equipment and technology. This has brought catalytic cracking plants back to work, thanks to the additives supplied by Iran.
Alkylate: The reactivation has been possible because one of the fundamental components, the alkylate, was sent by Iran in a tanker convoy that arrived in recent days. Due to the serious damage to the facilities and being of very high risk, the alkylation process will not be carried out.
Cardón is the second refinery that Venezuela has been able to restart in the last 20 days, since the El Palito refinery started operating at 30% capacity. The work in Paraguaná (with PDVSA equipment) is supported by experts from Iran and a “technological reconversion” with Chinese and Iranian technologies is planned.
Licenses: The technology used in Cardón and Amuay (next in the reactivation plan) is of American origin and its components and inputs such as catalysts and other chemicals are covered by licenses from USA suppliers, so the impact of the blockade is very injurious.
In addition, many of the key equipment is unique to Venezuela plants , making it very difficult to evade the blockade when going to the global market to look for a component whose final destination will be a PDVSA installation in Venezuela.
The United States cannot use its military power against Venezuela, its strategy is to block everything that benefits the Venezuelan people, and the people take away the great support it has for the Bolivarian government.
