Venezuela to help Cuba resurrect old refinery

April 11, 2006, 11:23PM
Venezuela to help Cuba resurrect old refinery
Chronicle News Services

HAVANA - Venezuela and Cuba will invest $800 million to $1 billion to
start up an unfinished Soviet-era refinery on the island, the Venezuelan
ambassador to Cuba, Adan Chavez, said Tuesday.

"The aim is to completely reactivate the Cienfuegos refinery," the
envoy, an older brother of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said at a
news conference.

The initial investment will be approximately between $800 million and $1
billion in shared costs, he said.

Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA formed a joint venture with Cuba on
Monday to revamp the unused refinery on the shore of Cienfuegos Bay in
south-central Cuba, and signed an agreement guaranteeing Venezuelan
feedstock of 70,000 barrels per day.

Venezuela and Cuba signed an accord in April 2005 that committed PDVSA
to help start the refinery, which was completed in 1991. The refinery,
with an installed capacity of about 76,000 barrels a day, has never
operated because of its reliance on outdated Russian technology.

PDVSA has said it plans to spend about $2.2 billion on overseas
refineries through 2012. Sixty-nine percent of the investment is
earmarked for a refinery in northern Brazil.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/3788272.html