Saturday, 13 February 2021_A plane carrying Iranian catalysts has landed in Venezuela to help jump-start the oil refineries in the South American country amid a fuel crisis, a report says.
Three people familiar with the matter and flight-tracking data confirmed the shipment of the catalysts to the 955,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Paraguana Refining Complex, a crude oil refinery center in western Venezuela, Reuters reported.
According to air traffic monitoring website flightradar24.com, an Airbus plane belonging to Venezuelan state-run airline Conviasa arrived at the Las Piedras airport on the Paraguana peninsula on February 11 after taking off from Tehran the previous day, with a stopover in Belgrade.
The plane was carrying catalysts intended for the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), said the three people, who were speaking on the condition of anonymity, adding that over a dozen further similar flights are expected.
Last year, Iran sent more than a dozen flights to help restart the 310,000 bpd Cardon refinery and alleviate acute gasoline shortages in Venezuela.
It also dispatched three flotillas of vessels carrying fuel to the Latin American state.