"Event" affects Venezuela refinery - Yahoo! News

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA said on Saturday an "operational event," which witnesses said was an explosion, had affected a unit of the 640,000 barrel per day (bpd) Amuay refinery.
Three witnesses in the area of the refinery told Reuters on Saturday they felt and heard an explosion on Friday night.
"The explosion was felt from 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) away," one resident of the area told Reuters by telephone.
PDVSA said in a statement that "an operational event was registered that affected a furnace of the Hydrosulfurization Unit Number 4 of the Amuay refinery" at 9:21 p.m. on Friday night."
The El Nacional newspaper on Saturday reported an explosion at Amuay and blackouts in the neighboring towns, citing witnesses in the area.
PDVSA's statement did not define the operational event and did not confirm whether or not it had been an explosion. The unit was in startup, PDVSA said, following a maintenance stoppage announced in September.
It added that there had been no injuries, that other refinery units had not been affected, and that the company did not expect the event to affect fuel supply commitments.
The company usually guarantees that it's product sales will not be affected by
PDVSA officials did not answer repeated phone calls from Reuters requesting clarification.
PDVSA has suffered from frequent operational problems this year, including a massive fire at an Amuay crude distillation unit in July and an explosion at the neighboring Cardon refinery in March that killed two workers.
Amuay and Cardon together form the giant 940,000 bpd Paraguana refining complex. Venezuela is the fourth-largest exporter of oil to the United States.