Nicaragua to Open ALBA Oil
Refinery
Managua - The Nicaraguan authorities will open on February 26 the
first phase of El Supremo
Sueño
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. |
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