CUBA: Petrochemical Complex Poses Major Environmental Challenge

•  cienfuegos, cuba
• Thursday, August 11, 2011
• Inter Press Service

Almost 85 percent of the river basins in the province of Cienfuegos empty into the marine ecosystem around which all of the industrial and urban development of the city of the same name is linked.

Located 250 kilometers southeast of Havana, Cienfuegos was founded by French settlers in 1819, under its original name of Fernandina de Jagua. In 2005, it was declared a World Cultural Heritage site by the United Nations.

'These waters look pretty clean to me now. There used to be times, when it rained, that the rivers washed into the sea and then we would see a lot of dead fish. It seemed that this freshwater brought pollution,' Jaime Pérez told Tierramérica, speaking from the experience of living in the area for 80 years, almost all them devoted to the fishing trade.

The environmental threats today stem from another source: potential petrochemical industry pollution. The petrochemical megaproject is an expansion of the Camilo Cienfuegos oil refinery, which was modernised with Venezuelan financing after laying dormant for 14 years, and now processes 65,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Work is scheduled to begin soon to increase its refining capacity to 150,000 barrels (of 159 liters of oil each).

To supply the refinery, operated by the Cuban-Venezuelan joint venture Cuvenpetrol, 200 oil tankers from Venezuela passed through the narrow canal that joins the bay to the Caribbean Sea during the first six months of this year.

'The refinery is located in the most suitable site, further to the east and south,' said engineer Reynaldo Acosta of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment. The site for the expansion project was chosen on the basis of numerous criteria, including sea currents, erosive processes and the potential contamination of groundwater, he explained.

The petrochemical complex will include facilities for the production of ammonia, urea and polyvinyl chloride (PVC, used in the construction of 'petrocasas' or 'petrohomes', a Venezuelan initiative), as well as a regasification plant. The expansion is being partially financed with investment from China, although the amounts involved have not been reported.

The expansion of the Cienfuegos refinery will also serve a strategic purpose: the processing of the crude oil Cuba extracts from the deepwater reserves it will begin drilling this year in the Gulf of Mexico.

The plant for the production of ammonia - to be used in the nickel, refrigeration and fertiliser industries - is to be located near the plant that will process the liquid natural gas needed for its operation.

The complex is being developed through agreements signed under the framework of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), whose members also include Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Dominica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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