Venezuela's state oil company says it will shut down part of its El Palito refinery for maintenance starting Thursday, according to AP. General manager Jesus Sanchez says the process will take 70 days. Planned improvements include increasing the capacity of the Fluid Catalytic Cracking unit that refines crude oil into gasoline by 11 percent to around 60,000 barrels per day. Petroleos de Venezuela, SA, or PDVSA, says the programmed maintenance will cost $193 million and involve 37 Venezuelan companies. The refinery west of Caracas has the capacity to process 136,000 barrels of heavy Venezuelan crude daily. PDVSA said in a statement Saturday it guarantees the refinery's supply of gasoline during the upgrade.
