Costa Rica To Compete For Regional Refinery
The Ministro del Ambiente y Energía (Environment and Energy minister), Roberto Dobles, announced that Costa Rica will compete with Guatemala and Panama in a bid to become the headquarters for a regional refinery that is worth some us$7 billion dollars in revenue.

Dobles said that the Costa Rican proposal is to construct the industrial centre in Barranca, Puntarenas and that is Costa Rican wins the contest, construction could start as early as 2008.

The minister explained the location is close to the three area ports on the Pacific and the Caribbean ports can be accessed by a oil pipe that already crosses the country.

The refinery will be built of 900 hectares, refining Mexican crude for export to California as its main market. The project is waiting on the decision of the Instituto Mexicano de Petróleos y el Programa de Integración Energética Mesoamericana (PIEM) to give out the contract for the refinery and the selection of the country will follow.

Costa Rica is one of 11 countries in the contest. However, the strongest candidates for the project are Guatemala, Panama and Costa Rica. It is still unknown is Nicaragua and Honduras will participate.