REFILE-Venezuela finishes Petrecedeno oil project repairs

(Refiles to clarify headline)

CARACAS, April 26 (Reuters) - Venezuela has completed major maintenance at the Petrocedeno heavy crude upgrader and expects to renew the plant's shipments in May, state oil company PDVSA said on Saturday.

Norway's Statoil (STL.OL) and France's Total (TOTF.PA) are PDVSA's minority partners at the Petrocedeno project, which leftist President Hugo Chavez nationalized last year.

The maintenance, which began on Feb. 25, included the cleaning, inspection, maintenance and repair of the multi-billion dollar upgrader, PDVSA said.

"It is expect that with the restart of the upgrader this week, the (company) will renew its sales of Zuata Sweet in the month of May," said PDVSA in a statement, referring to the upgraded crude.

PDVSA did not provide further details on the upgrader's restart.

The Petrocedeno project has the capacity to produce 200,000 bpd of heavy crude that it can then process into about 180,000 bpd of more valuable synthetic crude.

Petrocedeno was one of four multibillion projects in the Orinoco heavy oil belt that were operated by foreign companies until Chavez seized a majority stake in a wave of nationalizations last year.

Total and Statoil reached agreement over compensation for the takeover. (Reporting by Brian Ellsworth and Deisy Buitrago, editing by Sandra Maler)