Cuba’s Cienfuegos Refinery to Be Reactivated This Month

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). PDV-CUPET SA, a joint venture formed by Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, together with Cuba’s CUPET in order to reactivate the Cienfuegos refinery located in Cienfuegos province, Cuba, announced that the refinery is scheduled to be reactivated on December 21 2007.

The rehabilitation of the Cienfuegos refinery is part of Venezuela’s Plan Siembra Petrolera implemented by President Hugo Chavez in 2005 in order to gain new markets around the world and benefit the country by the year 2030. For details, view related August 7, 2006 news article - PDVSA to Build Three New Refineries in Venezuela.

The first phase of the rehabilitation of the Cienfuegos refinery will have a processing capacity of 65,000 bpd (barrels per day) with a total investment of $83 million. This refinery aims to produce 15,000 b/d of gasoline; 14,000 b/d of diesel fuel; 7, 000 b/d of jet fuel; and 1,000 b/d of liquid petroleum gas.

Steel floating roof tanks were replaced for aluminum fixed roof storage tanks, extending the previous five year maintenance period work to ten years. After the second phase is completed, the plant will have a total of 108,000 bpd processing capacity. Cienfuegos’ reactivation will help cover Cuba’s internal gasoline demand and will allow the country, which currently produces approximately 70,000 barrels per day of high sulfur crude oil, to export around 9,000 b/d of gasoline.

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