By Peter Wilson
Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil company, may reactivate its mothballed refinery in The Bahamas, taking advantage of strong demand for refined products, a minister from the island country said.
Petroleos de Venezuela is interested in either reopening the refinery, located on Grand Bahama Island, or dismantling part of it and erecting a smaller facility in its place, Bahamas Trade and Industry Minister Leslie Miller said in an interview Friday after an energy conference in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
At least $100 million needs to be invested in the refinery to restart it, said Miller, who will meet later this week with Venezuelan officials in Caracas.
Petroleos de Venezuela acquired the refinery when it bought the Bahamas Oil Refining Co. in 1990 for $103 million as part of a strategy to market more crude oil in the region. The facilities have been left mostly idle by the Caracas-based company, which uses only about half of the oil storage tanks at the location.
In addition to the refinery, the complex also has storage tanks with capacity of up to 20 million barrels of crude and a large shipment terminal.
By Peter Wilson
Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil company, may reactivate its mothballed refinery in The Bahamas, taking advantage of strong demand for refined products, a minister from the island country said.
Petroleos de Venezuela is interested in either reopening the refinery, located on Grand Bahama Island, or dismantling part of it and erecting a smaller facility in its place, Bahamas Trade and Industry Minister Leslie Miller said in an interview Friday after an energy conference in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
At least $100 million needs to be invested in the refinery to restart it, said Miller, who will meet later this week with Venezuelan officials in Caracas.
Petroleos de Venezuela acquired the refinery when it bought the Bahamas Oil Refining Co. in 1990 for $103 million as part of a strategy to market more crude oil in the region. The facilities have been left mostly idle by the Caracas-based company, which uses only about half of the oil storage tanks at the location.
In addition to the refinery, the complex also has storage tanks with capacity of up to 20 million barrels of crude and a large shipment terminal.
