The fifth crude oil distillation unit of Amuay refinery, located in Paraguaná Refining Compound and which processes 190,000 bpd, will be shut down for five to seven months because of damages caused by a fire last week, industry sources told Reuters.

A spokesman for state-owned oil holding Pdvsa Monday declined to comment on the time the distillation unit would be out of service. The refining center, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, chiefly exports fuels to the US East Coast.

The fifth oil distillation unit was closed down last week, following a serious fire at one distillation tower. The incident forced the 640,000 bpd refinery to cut production by 74,000 bpd, according to estimates disclosed by Pdvsa.

"Pdvsa has informed that the distillation unit could be halted for five to seven months, but it not official," said a trader in Houston.

Another source, whose company has operations in Venezuela, explained that the long period mirrors the serious impact the fire had on the refinery. "We heard that the fire destroyed to crude unit and Pdvsa has to build it from scratch."

The fire at the fifth distillation unit in Amuay came on July 17, less than a week after two other major accidents were reported at the Paraguaná Refining Compound. In such accidents, five workers were injured in a fire in Amuay, while three other were hit by an explosion at the alkylation unit of Cardón refinery.

So far this year, five accidents have been reported in Paraguaná Refining Compound that have left three workers dead and other five injured.