Ecuador's refinery dream seems more of a fantasy

摘要

It was supposed to be the biggest investment ever in Ecuador: $12 billion for a 300,000 b/d refinery and the kick-start to industrialization with a major petrochemical complex. After $1.2 billion and eight years of broken promises, the Eloy Alfaro Refinery of the Pacific near Manta on the Pacific Coast is a vast empty lot cut from tropical dry forest. Soon the area will be at the receiving end of a 93-kilometer aqueduct that might supply potable water to nearby cities, but the refinery is a fast vanishing dream despite recent overtures with Iran.