Crude spill from pipeline near Venezuela’s main oil export terminal

A rupture in a pipeline caused a crude oil spill at Venezuela’s main terminal but the state oil and gas firm PDVSA said there had been no interruption to shipments from the facility, according to Reuters.

The broken pipeline is believed to run from the Jose terminal to a single buoy mooring (SBM) facility on the country’s east coast.

No ships were docking at the time of the incident.

The extent of the spill was not known and clean-up operations were ongoing.

PDVSA (short for Petroleos de Venezuela SA) manages the world’s biggest oil resources including huge offshore fields, but has been struggling because of the plunge in oil prices over the past two years.

Venezuela is enduring an economic crisis with gasoline shortages for its citizens.