Fifteen years after former President Rafael Correa and former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez (+) laid the foundation stone for the construction of the Pacific Refinery at Aroma in Manabi in 2008, the job has once again been at the center of controversy after Correísta’s candidate for President of the Republic, Luisa González , she assured during the presidential debate, on the night of August 13, that if she reached Carondelet, she would continue and complete its construction.

The work, which the state inspector general classified as “useless infrastructure” in a report approved in October 2020, involved $1.528 million in soil removal and leveling of 500 hectares alone, the construction of an aqueduct and an access road, which was later abandoned due to lack of financial resources.

Comptroller: Refinería del Pacífico demanded $1.528 million investment in “useless infrastructure”

It is not the first time that a candidate backed by former President Correa has cited a failed project while promising to complete it. In 2021, Andrés Arauz did the same, who at that time was the presidential candidate for the UNES alliance, list 1-5, and is now the vice-presidential candidate as González’s partner. Now the candidate has assured that she will complete the construction of the refinery and the petrochemical project to curb fuel subsidies to sell them at low prices and also, according to the candidate, create development, scholarships, roads with what she earns from the sale of that fuel.

“My government gave dignity to the transport sector, even with subsidies the economy grew, but one of the proposals was to build a Pacific refinery that you – pointing to the candidates who were present at the debate – and your governments destroyed and did not allow to move forward,” González said.

This statement provoked a reaction from another candidate, Yaku Pérez from the alliance Claro que se Puede, list 2-17-20, who asked the candidate of Revolución Ciudadana, list 5, if the allocated 1,500 million dollars was not enough. they spent on the correista government with the refinery.

González did not directly respond to Pérez, but instead supported the shutdown of the Pacífico refinery to fuel importers.

The topic also had its space on social networks. The vice-presidential candidate of the Construye Movement, list 25, Andrea González Nader, in addition to protesting the decision of the National Electoral Council (CNE) not to allow the presidential candidate Christian Zurita to debate, who replaced Fernando Villavicencio, who was killed last week, in Quito, pointed out: ” They won’t let us participate, but Luisa González keeps saying that there’s a refinery in the Pacific that only they can see. No one is talking about subsidizing renewable energy sources with grants: solar panels to our manufacturing sector,” criticized the candidate for vice president.

Presidential debate: strengthening agriculture, improving competitiveness and maintaining subsidies among the candidates’ proposals to reactivate the economy

José Luis Manzón, president of the Ecuadorian Institute of Procedural Law, posted on X (Twitter): Mrs. Luisa González (…) says she will face the problem of fuel subsidies by building (in a year and a half ) the Pacific Refinery to continue selling cheap gasoline. Refinery!

There were also positive reactions, such as that of Wladimir Caiced, a teacher and specialist in IT information technologies and networks. “Pacific Refinery, the largest petrochemical company in South America, which will process the oil of South and Central America. How many medium and large draft ships will arrive in Guayaquil and Manta? “Which companies will be created in Ecuador, how many jobs?” he indicated.

On August 26, 2021, the supervisor began the process of notifying former Correísmo senior officials of the confirmation of a joint glossary for $1,223.5 million for the failed construction of the complex.

At that time, the Comptroller General(s), Carlos Riofrío González, signed a resolution affirming the brilliance of solidarity. The document indicated that “there were actions and omissions by companies that did not manage and monitor, nor did they take appropriate actions regarding the progress, status and continuity of the Pacific Refinery Project.”

Among those celebrated were those who held high positions in the area of ​​strategic sectors of the Government of Rafael Correa: former Vice President Jorge Glas and former Minister of Hydrocarbons and former President of Petroecuador Pedro Merizalde. Likewise, Carlos Pareja Yannuzzelli, former Minister of Hydrocarbons and former manager of Petroecuador; Álex Bravo, who was the manager of Petroecuador.

Additionally, Marco Calvopiña, former manager of Petroecuador; Bismark Washington Andrade, the former manager of the Refinery, and the company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), an entity that has not fulfilled its contributions as the owner of 49% of the shares. Another partner was Petroecuador, which paid out funds that exceeded five times the amount of the share capital. In total, according to the Comptroller’s Office, Petroecuador contributed $773,768,642, compared to PDVSA, which contributed $13,789,870.

However, Glas, which at the time was in charge of managing strategic sectors and the Refinery’s Board of Directors, failed to integrate a third strategic and financial partner that would contribute resources to complete the construction of the refinery, which is estimated at $10,000 million. .

Part of the property of the failed Pacific refinery is deteriorating due to lack of maintenance

Meanwhile, since the declaration of liquidation, Refinería del Pacífico’s assets have been deteriorating due to a lack of funds to maintain them. This is the case of a residential complex of 140 houses – built almost ten years ago near the site where the refinery would be built – which would in principle be used as a residence for those who would work there.

This property has a price tag of $13 million and is part of Refinería del Pacífico’s assets in liquidation, such as the platform of the failed refinery, the aqueduct, as well as offices and other real estate.

Is there a way to continue the project?

For Alberto Acosta Burne, editor of Análisis Semanal, González’s proposal is “absolutely populist”. “They want to show that this refinery did not prosper because of the opposition and because they demolished it, the reality is a little more complex than that, the reality is that what has been done so far with more than 1500 million dollars immobilized in this land is an investment, under quotation marks, with a huge overvaluation that limits access to new possibilities of financing the work”, analyzes the expert who looks back on the fact that the state has invested as much as is necessary in the construction of that refinery, which is impossible because the resources do not exist.

However, there would be other mechanisms to continue the project and find funding. Among them, Acosta mentioned a concession or for the state to create a public-private association, although he warned that what the state can contribute to that society is land with infrastructure built “at a large premium.”

Lawsuits against the Pacific refinery in liquidation are close to 80 million dollars, one of them is being conducted in Paris

“The only way the state would have to participate in that society is to admit that overvaluation, that is, to say that the 1,500 million dollars that were used are not worth much, but much less, the rest is overvalued. or maybe even corruption, and then the state should contribute a much lower amount to that society,” said Acosta, who also explained that market concerns must also be taken into account, ensuring that the refinery must be economically viable and that Ecuador produces less and less oils..

In fact, the editor of Análisis Semanal recalled that from the beginning it was recognized in Ecuador that there was not enough oil for a refinery of that size and that was why it was proposed that Venezuela export crude oil to Ecuador to refine it, which was thought to be sustainable because it was a management between governments of socialism of the 21st century, but it was not something economically very profitable, analyzed Acosta.

“Ecuador does not have the oil to supply a white elephant of that size, and on the other hand there are also market problems. In the world, when this project was promoted, there were unused installed capacities for oil processing. It’s not only important to have oil to refine, but you have to see what the refining offer is in the world, the installed capacities and how competitive they are,” said Acosta, who stated that it is important not to refine oil in Ecuador, but to do it efficiently as could export fuels to the world in a competitive way, otherwise he indicated that owning a plant for the production of expensive fuels represents passing on the account of inefficiency to the citizens.