Havana.- The leaders of Petrocaribe’s 16 member countries will gather this Friday in the city of Cienfuegos, Cuba, to hold the IV Petrocaribe Summit of Heads of State and/or Government, with the purpose of furthering the progress of the Latin American and Caribbean energy union initiative.
This meeting constitutes a phase of consolidation of the regional initiative. During the summit, heads of state will assess compliance with the agreements subscribed during the two years this organization has existed.
The leaders participating in the IV Petrocaribe Summit will also host their Guatemalan and Honduran counterparts as observers. The latter have expressed their interest in gaining knowledge on the Latin American and Caribbean integration mechanism.
As part of the Summit, the delegations of the participating countries will attend the re-inauguration ceremony of the Camilo Cienfuegos Refinery. This refinery will have capacity to process 65 thousand barrels per day during its first stage. Moreover, the design for an enlargement phase has already begun. This enlargement will increase this plant’s refining capacity to 109 TBD, and will incorporate deep conversion technologies to make the most out of every processed oil barrel.
The main objective of the Petrocaribe initiative is to unite the Latin American and Caribbean peoples based on energy resources. This initiative is supported by the principles of economic complimentarity, cooperation and solidarity, energy security, socioeconomic development, conservation vision, and sovereignty regarding the use of energy resources, among others.
The Summit in which this integration mechanism was created was held in Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela, in 2005, and included the signing of the Petrocaribe Energy Cooperation Agreement by 14 countries. Subsequently, the leaders met in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in 2006, and in Caracas in August of 2007, when Haiti and Nicaragua joined Petrocaribe.
Petrocaribe’s member countries include: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Santa Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Surinam, and Venezuela.