Oxy Finds Partner for Oil Refinery

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A proposal by Occidental Petroleum Corp. to build a refinery on Panama’s Pacific Coast moved closer to reality this week with the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Qatar’s state oil company to form a partnership to build the $7-billion project if feasibility studies prove positive, the Los Angeles Times reports.


In a signing ceremony Tuesday in Panama City attended by Panamanian President Martin Torrijos, executives of Westwood-based Occidental and Qatar Petroleum Co. said they would spend up to $20 million on engineering and cost studies in coming months and begin construction as early as February if the preliminary work pans out.


The project would be on an abandoned 3,000-acre banana plantation in Puerto Armuelles, a port city near Panama’s border with Costa Rica. Qatar would help supply the crude for the project and invest in a new 200-megawatt power plant, said Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad Attiyah, who represented his country at the event.


Representing Occidental at the signing was John W. Morgan, president of the company’s Western Hemisphere operations. If the project goes forward, it could be completed by 2012.


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