By Rosa Rodríguez
Caribbean Net News Dominican Republic Correspondent
Email: rosa@caribbeannetnews.com

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: The Canadian mining firm Falconbridge is planning to expand its petroleum refinery facilities to increase the supply of fuel to the Dominican Republic.

According to reports, the refinery’s expansion will cost over US$50 million, and will help to reduce the current fuel deficit in the Dominican Republic market.

The project by Falconbridge, which also processes ferrous-nickel, will reportedly begin in the coming months and currently tenders are being accepted for the study, headed by several international consultants.

The refinery’s expansion project seeks to process 13 to 20,000 barrels of crude daily, originating from the Caribbean basin, yielding 7,850 barrels of diesel, over 4,000 of fuel-oil and 375,000 gallons of propane gas, for sale in the Dominican market.

Falconbridge is located near to the country’s major highway and has access to the north region, whose consumption is 39 percent of the fuel products sold in the Dominican market, and it is therefore in a strategic location to ease the logistics of those supplies, resulting in a drop in the prices of finished products because of lower transport costs.

The Dominican Republic fuel market consumes 124,000 barrels daily.

Source www.dominicantoday.com