Large Oil Refinery Planned For Ecuador  

The Australian reports that Venezuela is shifting refining of its crude oil away from the US to South American locations, initially in Ecuador.

VENEZUELA and Ecuador plan to build the biggest oil refinery in South America, to wean Venezuelan crude away from the US. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said: “Instead of having refineries in the United States, we decided to keep them here.” Mr Chavez launched the project with President Rafael Correa of Ecuador yesterday.

The joint $US6.6 billion ($6.7 billion) project by state-run oil firms PDVSA of Venezuela and Petroecuador of Ecuador will refine 300,000 barrels of crude a day and save Ecuador $US3 billion in oil imports a year, President Correa said. The refinery will be built in El Aromo, in Ecuador's Pacific-coast province of Manabi, and should be ready in 2013.

President Chavez said he planned to build other refineries in Brazil and Nicaragua - Venezuela's leftist allies in the region - to keep Venezuela's oil wealth away from the US, where Venezuela currently runs seven refineries. “Everything ended up in the United States – that’s what the empire and colonialism are all about,” Mr Chavez said. His goal, the President said, was to provide “energy security for all the people in the (South American) continent”.