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COSTA RICA |
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China May Spend $700 Million on Costa Rica
Refinery
By Heather Walsh, Bloomberg
China may spend $700 million to help fund
expansion of Costa Rica’s Refinadora
Costarricense de Petroleo SA oil refinery as
it boosts energy ties in the region.
China National Petroleum Corp. may tap a
China state-run bank for financing to triple
capacity at the plant to 60,000 barrels a
day, Jose Leon Desanti, head of the Costa
Rican refining company, known as Recope,
said in an interview. The Chinese company,
known as CNPC, is a partner in the
expansion.
“CNPC is doing some work to identify the
possible bank or banks in China,” Desanti
said from San Jose, the Costa Rican capital,
on Nov. 13.
China and Costa Rica may also hold talks
within three years for the development of a
separate refinery with capacity of 300,000
barrels a day to handle crude from Latin
American producers for export, according to
Desanti. The Asian nation is strengthening
ties with commodities producers from Africa
to Latin America to ensure supplies of
energy and metals, said Pedro Tuesta, senior
Latin American economist at 4Cast Inc.
“It’s a long-term strategy,” he said today
in a telephone interview from Washington
D.C. China “is setting up infrastructure for
long-term supplies,” he said.
A unit of CNPC may also help on the
construction of the refinery expansion near
the city of Moin, according to Desanti.
Costa Rica, a nation of about 4.3 million
people with ports on the Caribbean and
Pacific coasts, seeks to cut dependence on
imported gasoline. The refinery expansion
will boost output from about 18,000 barrels
a day at Recope.
‘Launching Pad’
China is seeking to strengthen political
ties with the region, Juan Lindau, a
political scientist specializing in Latin
America at Colorado College, Colorado
Springs, said today in an e-mail. The two
nations also are negotiating a trade accord.
“China sees Costa Rica as a launching pad
for all of its economic interests in Central
America, not to speak of the more general
vicinity,” he said. “China is boundlessly
interested in Latin America’s resources.”
Construction on the expansion at the
refinery in eastern Costa Rica may begin in
2011 or 2012 and finish by 2015, Desanti
said. Recope began discussing the project
with CNPC in 2007 and completed approvals
for the plan last month.
CNPC Unit
The venture, signed with CNPC’s
international unit, will cut energy costs
when oil prices rise, Costa Rica’s
government said in September. Oil has surged
77 percent this year.
A second, larger plant would help to ensure
future growth in fuel demand by Costa Rica,
which produces no oil of its own, Desanti
said. The country has to make an “extra
effort” to improve infrastructure, he said.
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