MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador/Venezuela plan largest oil refinery in Pacific coast

Ecuador and Venezuela subscribed Thursday an agreement for the construction of the largest crude refinery in the South American Pacific coast with a capacity of 300.000 barrels per day.

The agreement was subscribed by the two countries government owned and managed oil companies PDVSA and Petroecuador, acting as witnesses' Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez. "This is a piece more of Venezuela's energy integration strategic plan for the region", said Hugo Chavez. The cost of the project is estimated in 5 billion US dollars and will have an additional conversion plant to comply with all international environmental and technical requirements. Ecuador Energy minister Galo Chiriboga said the project is open to the participation of government owned oil companies from the region. Venezuelan Popular Economics minister Pedro Morejon said that Caracas is promoting an agreement for the region to ensure energy supply "for the next hundred years thus helping economic development and social justice". Morejon said this was the main reason behind the current tour of President Chavez which begun in Argentina, continued in Uruguay and Ecuador and is scheduled to conclude in Bolivia Friday where several energy agreements will be signed.