UPDATE 1-Venezuela refinery outage hits local gas market

(Adds details, background)

CARACAS, Nov 17 (Reuters) - A problem at the key cat cracker unit of the 200,000 barrels per day Puerto la Cruz refinery has hurt gasoline supply to the Venezuelan market since Friday, the state oil company PDVSA said on Saturday.

An unspecified "event" at what is a refinery's most important unit prevented PDVSA mixing gasoline at the refinery for 48 hours, the company said in a statement.

That meant that since Friday, the company could not maintain normal supplies to some local gasoline stations, PDVSA added.

Venezuela is an OPEC member, the No. 4 U.S. oil supplier, and holds some of the largest reserves outside the Middle East.

Accidents, power failures and creaking infrastructure problems have caused repeated outages at the South American nation's refineries in the last few years.

Still, interruptions to supply have been rare in a country where most Venezuelans can fill up their car tanks for less than $2.

For days last month, drivers formed long lines in a major provincial city as some gas stations ran dry after a series of outages at another refinery in what became a political embarrassment for the government.

The opposition and industry analysts criticize President Hugo Chavez for his management of PDVSA, which has become highly politicized and funnels its revenue from record oil prices to his popular social programs. (Reporting by Saul Hudson)