Major Venezuelan refinery restarts processing unit after a year offline, sources say

May 6 (Reuters) - Venezuela's second largest refinery, Cardon, restarted its fluid catalytic cracker which had been out of service for more than a year due to a failure and lack of raw materials, four sources close to operations said Tuesday.

The 88,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity cracker, or FCC, which is key in the production of fuel for automobiles, was processing 26,000 bpd on Tuesday, while a similar unit at Amuay - the country's largest refinery - was processing around 38,000 bpd, one of the sources said.

The Paraguana Refining Center, which includes both the Amuay and Cardon refineries, was on Tuesday processing about 187,000 bpd, equivalent to 20% of its installed capacity of 955,000 bpd, the source said.

Cardon had one crude distillation unit in service, processing about 50,000 bpd, versus an installed capacity of 310,000 bpd.

Amuay, meanwhile, was processing just 137,000 bpd of crude, compared to a capacity of 645,000 bpd, the source added.

Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One source said the refinery complex is receiving crude from upgrading firms Petropiar and Petromonagas as well as from the eastern coast of the country's oil-rich Zulia state.