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Panama Oil Refineries $40 Billion investment plan
Reuters
By Andrew Beatty
PANAMA CITY, (Reuters) - A consortium of private firms led by Spain's Tecnicas Reunidas (TRE.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) presented a 20-year plan worth $40 billion on Thursday to transform Panama into a refinery and petrochemical hub for Latin America.
The consortium, called Energias, is comprised of private investors ranging from the United States to Asia and plans to build refineries, petrochemical plants and a 56-mile (90-km) long oil pipeline that would follow the route of Panama's inter-oceanic canal.
Pending government approval and overcoming fierce environmental resistance, the project, which would spread over a 3,700-acre (1,500-hectare) site on Panama's Atlantic coast, would have an oil refining capacity of 2 million barrels a day.
It would produce 3 million tonnes of petrochemicals a year, including polymers and fertilizers, the consortium's vice president, Luis Marin, said in a presentation to lawmakers.
According to Marin, the pipeline and a new set of docks that would handle 2,400 vessels a year would help the products reach markets in Asia and the West Coast of the United States, as well as the Caribbean.
The project hopes to take advantage of the shortfall in U.S. refining capacity and high oil prices to turn Panama into a major center for energy distribution, Marin added.
Companies including Britain's BP Plc. BP.LSE(BP.N: Quote, Profile, Research), French companies Total S.A. (TOT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Suez SZE.N Brazil's Petrobras (PBR.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Bechtel Corporation and investment bank UBS AG (UBS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) have shown interest, an Energias spokesman said.
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Qatar Says Planned Panama Refinery to Cost $7 Billion (Update1)
By Arif Sharif
June 16 (Bloomberg) -- Qatar Petroleum Corp., the country's state-run oil and gas company, said a refinery it plans to build with Occidental Petroleum Corp. in Panama may cost $7 billion.
The refinery will have a daily capacity of 350,000 barrels of crude oil, Qatar Petroleum Chairman Abdullah Bin Hamad al- Attiyah said in comments reported today by the official Qatar News Agency. The state-owned company on May 15 said it signed a memorandum of understanding for the refinery with a unit of Occidental and the government of Panama.
The planned refinery is part of $20 billion of foreign projects that Qatar Petroleum has agreed to or is negotiating, said al-Attiyah, who is also Qatar's energy minister. That includes a $2 billion refinery in Tunisia with a daily capacity of 150,000 barrels, an agreement announced May 27.
Source:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN0923836420070809
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