Three consortiums are shaping up for the Manabí refinery

Ecuadornews:

The Government wants to turn the project around. The Pacific Refinery changes its name to Manabí Refinery to leave behind the image of irregularities that occurred in the construction of this hydrocarbon complex.

This was the announcement made by the President of the Republic, Lenin Moreno, during the meeting with investors interested in continuing with the construction of the mega-project.

Of the 28 companies that visited the country these days to know the advantages of investing in the refinery, there is a group that is more interested, said yesterday the Minister of Hydrocarbons, Carlos Pérez.

Although he did not want to advance names, the signatures come from China, Russia, England and the United States. “They are very interested with one of the companies we started talking on the 26th of this month,” said the head of Hydrocarbons.

The Minister of Foreign Trade, Pablo Campana, added that companies are expected to form alliances and that three consortiums will be formed to compete with each other to win the project.

“We are going to have positive results,” he added. One of the concerns of companies, said Perez, has to do with deadlines. The government plans to sign an agreement until May 24 and that has worried some companies. The three-year term that the Government has established for the construction of the complex has also caused concern in some firms. However, if technically time is not viable, the times will be reconsidered, said Minister Pérez.

The holder of the portfolio of State maintained that they hope not to delay the terms because this project takes 10 years and still nothing is firm. In case there are no concrete proposals from investors, the project will be declared unfeasible and will be discarded.

In total, the company or consortium is expected to invest $ 5 billion in construction, plus an additional $ 3 billion for oil pipelines and other additional works.

2016 

Round with few results 

It is not the first time that potential investors have arrived in the country. The previous government also made the attempt for international firms to look at a portfolio of strategic projects, but the results have been discrete.

In October 2016, the Investment Summit 2016 was held in Quito, attended by executives from interested companies from 26 countries. At that time, with the slogan “Ecuador, land of opportunities”, former President Rafael Correa presented an investment catalog with 181 projects. After this event, the figures for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) did not vary much.

2011 

Strengthen the non-oil sector 

In 2011, the Bloomberg Ecuador Economic Summit was held in Quito, which sought to bring more investments to the country, especially to strengthen the non-oil economy. In addition to the investors who came to the country, the event sought to reach 400,000 executives subscribed, in that case, to the platform of the financial information multinational Bloomberg.

The ex-Minister of Industries at that time, Nathalie Cely, told EXPRESO that this event was positive for the country and that was reflected in the private investment from 2011 to 2014. He added that Foreign Direct Investment is not the only indicator to measure success of the event.

Only offers between different times 

The Government of Moreno (2017) and that of Rafael Correa (2016) have announced large investments. (I)

Source: http://www.expreso.ec/economia/refineria-manabi-consorcios-firmas-inversiones-HH1999977