• Submitted by: manso
• Business and Economy
• 10 / 01 / 2011

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The Venezuelan state oil company plans to invest a total of $13.63 billion in three Cuban refineries. One expansion project is already underway; China Export & Credit Insurance Corp. is apparently providing funding for that project, using Venezuelan oil revenues as collateral.

China is “almost sure” to provide funding for three refinery projects in Cuba, PdVSA Internal Director Jesús Luongo said during an international oil congress in Caracas, according to Venezuelan daily El Universal.


“We are working with Chinese companies and the Chinese government, looking for Chinese financing,” Luongo said, according to El Universal. “The Cubans are working on this together with us, and it’s almost sure that there will be Chinese financing.”

PdVSA is looking for the same type of arrangement for planned refineries in Nicaragua and Ecuador, according to Luongo.

The cost of doubling the joint-venture refinery in Cienfuegos will total $5.44 billion, according to Luongo. The expansion from 65,000 to 150,000 barrels per day processing capacity is expected to be completed in 2014. In June, Cuvenpetrol — the Cuban-Venezuelan joint venture that owns the plant — signed a three-way agreement with China Huanqiu Contracting & Engineering Corp., a subsidiary of state oil company CNPC and the Italian subsidiary of Technip, a French oil engineering company.

PdVSA also has 49-percent equity stakes in a yet-to-be-built refinery in Matanzas and an existing refinery in Santiago. The refinery in Matanzas, planned for 150,000 bpd, will cost $7.57 billion, according to Luongo. The cost of a planned expansion of the Hermanos Díaz refinery in Santiago from 22,000 bpd to 50,000 bpd would be $622 million.

Source. http://www.cubastandard.com/2011/09/30/pdvsa-official-china-almost-sure-...