Explosion kills at least 19 at Venezuela’s biggest refinery | Reuters

(Reuters) - A gas leak caused an explosion that killed at least 19 people at Venezuela’s biggest oil refinery on Saturday and wounded more than 50 in the OPEC nation’s worst industrial accident in recent memory.

The deadly blast follows a string of minor accidents and unplanned stoppages that have afflicted state oil company PDVSA over the last decade, prompting critics to accuse President Hugo Chavez’s government of mismanagement.

It was not immediately clear how the blast would affect operations at the 645,000-barrels-per-day (bpd) Amuay facility, which makes up two-thirds of the world’s second-largest refinery complex, nor for how long output might be affected.