CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Nicaragua to Open ALBA Oil Refinery

NICARAGUA, February 17, 2009. The Nicaraguan authorities will open on February 26 the first phase of El Supremo Sueno de Bolivar oil refinery, announced media on Tuesday.

Multinoticias Canal 4 TV station aired statements by Francisco Lopez, director of state-owned PETRONIC, announcing the conclusion of the first stage of the oil refining complex, which is being built with the help of Venezuela, as part of the Bolivarian Alternative for the People of the Americas (ALBA).

The three oil storage tanks that will help develop the refinery are ready, Lopez announced.
The project was the target of criticism by local right-wing media for months.

However, its progress does not appear on any front page of the main local dailies, observers said.
The work concluded in this stage has cost over $25 million of a $2.5 billion total investment, and will allow storing 602,000 oil barrels.

Until now only Esso transnational had such storage capacity, which allowed it to monopolize 70 percent of the national market of oil and its derivatives.

The Nicaraguan project includes importing nine million barrels of crude oil and its derivatives from Venezuela, facing this way the national demand and supplying Central American markets.

It also assures supplying the Hugo Chavez and Che Guevara thermoelectric stations with fuel for generating power, a necessary step to change the country's energy system, according to the authorities. (Cubaminrex - PL)

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