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Returning to Cabaiguán’s heyday of
Base Oil production
Juan Antonio Borrego
Díaz
CABAIGUÁN, Sancti Spíritus.—The
until
very recently
dilapidated
image of the Sancti
Spíritus base oil plant,
has been completely transformed following repair
works carried out at this
installation, belonging to the
Ministry of Energy
and Mines (Minem), the
only one of its
kind in the country.
Rigoberto
Benavides, director
of
production at the Sergio
Soto Enterprise, told
Granma
that the restoration,
valued at more than
700,000
pesos and carried out by
the company itself, included the
comprehensive
rehabilitation of
acid treatment
systems,
neutralization systems and wastewater treatment,
works which are unprecedented
in the 25
years in which the entity has been operational.
In
addition to the restoration and maintenance of
all pumps and cables
involved
in the production process, a
system
for cleaning the gases
generated was installed and
a water tank used to clean the oil
was replaced, all of which
has placed the plant
in a privileged position
compared to previous
periods.
Founded
in 1989
and supplied by the
Pina-Cristales-Jatibonico river
basin, which
provides
low-sulphur crude oil, the industry caters to
the domestic demand for
insulating oil for electrical transformers of
up to
13.8 kV
and produces
an essential
component
for the production of
Sigatoka, a pesticide
used against
the disease of the same name
affecting banana
plantations in the country.
Sources close
to this sector
confirmed that
the cost of
dielectric
oil produced in
Cabaiguán does
not exceed
950 CUC
per ton, well below the
price charged for this derivative
on the international market.
The
works undertaken in Base
Oils form
part of the rehabilitation strategy
being implemented
in the Sancti Spíritus
oil refinery, where the
vacuum and atmospheric
distillation columns were
also recently repaired,
resulting in an appreciable
improvement in crude oil
distillation capacity.
In
addition to
dielectric oil
and
Sigatoka, AC-30
quality asphalt
is also produced
in
Cabaiguán - primarily
intended for use in the
road works being undertaken
in the Mariel Special
Development Zone – as well as
fuel oil, diesel, naphtha
and a reducing
solvent used
in oil
wells to reduce the
viscosity of the crude.
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