Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—A fire broke out at the Cardón refinery in Venezuela’s Falcón state this Tuesday, October 6, after a natural-gas line ruptured at 3:25 p.m. Emergency crews quickly contained the flames, with no injuries, harm to third parties, or major damage, according to a statement from PDVSA. The company immediately halted refinery operations as a safety precaution while personnel assessed conditions for a safe restart, in order to protect workers as well as infrastructure.The damaged line supplied the refinery’s boilers. The company subsequently formed an investigation committee to determine what caused the rupture and fire. Identifying the broken gas line establishes how the emergency began; the reason for the line’s failure remains under investigation. The report from PDVSA, the primary Venezuelan publicly-owned oil company, has yet to provide a restart date, but has made assurances that the National Refining System held sufficient fuel inventories to maintain deliveries, according to Telesur.Cardón forms part of the Paraguaná Refining Center, alongside Amuay. Its installed capacity is approximately 310,000 barrels per day, according to mainstream media reports. That figure describes its design capacity, rather than its output immediately before the fire.Maintenance under the US empire’s blockadeVenezuela’s efforts to maintain and restore its refineries face the accumulated weight of Washington’s illegal sanctions. Restrictions on financing, payments, equipment, and spare parts obstruct the work required to keep oil facilities operating safely, along corruption cases.These effects are documented beyond Venezuela’s own condemnations. In her 2021 report, UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan concluded that these colonial sanctions on critical sectors, including oil, violated international law. She found that the blockade restricted revenue and resources for infrastructure maintenance, while fear of sanctions drove banks and foreign suppliers to refuse transactions, obstructing purchases of machinery and spare parts.The restrictions reach the productive infrastructure that supplies Venezuelans with fuel, rather than affecting only individual officials. They also burden the oil workers tasked with sustaining and recovering the industry.Washington’s September 28 revisions to its energy licenses did not dismantle that framework. As Orinoco Tribune reported, General License 48D permits certain equipment, technology, services, maintenance, and repairs, but retains US empire-imposed conditions on covered transactions and payments.US Updates Venezuela Energy Licenses as Electricity Issues Threaten RecoveryThe blockade’s documented damage to maintenance provides essential context for Cardón’s operating conditions. Establishing why this particular gas line ruptured, however, remains the task of PDVSA’s investigation, and the company has maintained its priorities are a safe restart and continued fuel deliveries. Special for Orinoco Tribune by staffOT/JRE/aU