Page 8 - LatAmOil Week 15 2022

LatAmOil CUBA LatAmOil

In 2020 alone, Venezuela supplied the Car- country’s oil-processing plants to step up pro-
ibbean nation with almost 44,000 bpd of oil. duction of fuel. The Havana refinery is currently
However, this figure slipped to 21,000 bpd the operating at 70% capacity, and the Cienfuegos
following year. Supply volumes did marginally facility is only producing about 10,000 bpd on
increase to 22,000 bpd in the first quarter of a sporadic basis. The Santiago refinery, mean-
2022, but this level is not sufficient to meet the while, remains out of service.
needs of a country where demand for petroleum One obstacle to increasing capacity utilisa-
products typically exceeds 110,000 bpd. tion, though, is a lack of the diesel needed to
In order to help reduce the deficit between increase electricity output. According to Cuba’s
supply and demand, Jorge Piñon, director of the Economy Minister Alejandro Gil, the demand
University of Texas at Austin’s Latin America for diesel in power generation is rising. This is a
and Caribbean Energy and Environment Pro- major concern since the small distributed gen-
gramme, told Reuters, Cuba’s best option is to eration plants that Cuba relies upon typically
ramp up its domestic oil production. consume more diesel than large, centralised
Doing so would, at least in theory, allow the facilities, Reuters noted. ™

CURAÇAO
Eagle LNG Partners to negotiate LNG supply

accord with Curaçao’s Aqualectra utility

EAGLE LNG Partners (US) and Aqualectra, When finished, the facility at RdA will be
Curaçao’s public water and power provider, have capable of importing LNG and regasifying it so
signalled their intent to hammer out a deal on that it can be used to generate power at WEB
LNG supplies. Aruba’s Balashi thermal power plant (TPP).
The two companies issued a joint statement Eagle LNG said last year that the project would
last week saying that they had signed a heads of help Aruba reduce carbon dioxide emissions by
agreement (HoA) document that represents the allowing the TPP’s dual-fuel engines to switch
first step towards negotiating an LNG supply from the petroleum products that are its current
agreement. They did not reveal all the details main sources of fuel to cleaner-burning natural
of the HoA, but they did report that the parties gas.
hoped to finalise negotiations on the proposed Eagle LNG and Aqualectra indicated in
agreement by the middle of this year. last week’s statement that they are hoping to
In the statement, they noted that Hou- reap similar environmental benefits from the
ston-based Eagle LNG had been one of five Curaçao LNG supply deal. They also said that
companies to a submit non-binding offer in they hoped to see LNG become a more widely
response to Aqualectra’s request for informa- used fuel for power generation in the region. ™
tion (RFI) on a proposal for using LNG as a new
source of fuel. They also indicated that the utility
had based the RFI on the assumption that using
LNG to power its operations would reduce costs,
thereby benefiting local consumers by bringing
down the cost of utility services.
The companies did not say exactly how
Aqualectra might be able to make use of the
LNG. However, they did say that the proposed
deal could serve as a bridge between the utility
and its counterpart in Aruba, a neighbouring
island state in the Lesser Antilles.
Curaçao already has close ties to both Aruba
and Bonaire, as all three islands are constituents
of the Netherlands. However, the fuel supply
agreement would have added benefits, as Eagle
LNG Partners struck a $100mn deal last year
with WEB Aruba, the national water and power
provider of Aruba, on the joint construction of
an LNG regasification terminal at the site of the
Refineria di Aruba (RdA) plant. The two companies signed the HoA in Willemstad on April 7 (Photo: Aqualectra)

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