14ymedio, Havana, 6 April 2024 — Paralyzed since 2021 and after a stampede by its employees, the Hermanos Díaz refinery in Santiago de Cuba has come out of its lethargy thanks to an unusual “adaptation.” Despite the fact that its facilities are designed to process light crude oil, the managers have decided that it will have to refine the heavy crude by diluting it until it becomes ’medium’. Interviewed by the official media Sierra Maestra, the engineer who designed the “innovation,” Víctor Manuel Díaz, did not give too many details about the process or explain how the “experiment” has been going since it began. The refinery uses a solvent – he didn’t give the name or origin – to dilute the crude oil.
“What is being done in the Hermanos Díaz has allowed, to the extent possible, the provision to the eastern provinces of hydrocarbon, gasoline, fuel for drilling wells, fuel oil for thermoelectric power plants and distributed generation, as well as the production of asphalt and the industrial processing of nickel,” Díaz stated.
The Santiago newspaper did not seem as interested in the plant’s technical process as in remarking on the fact that the refinery’s revival immediately stopped “the emigration of qualified personnel,” who were leaving for other Cupet positions, going to private companies or leaving the country.
The fact that the refinery was working again stopped “the emigration of qualified personnel”
According to Díaz, the plant is now making money, allowing 700 workers to be paid, and several are earning up to 12,000 pesos “in the distribution of profits that are generated.” The managers enthusiastically congratulate themselves on their success, although they do not dare to predict how long the plant will be able to distribute fuel to both the eastern provinces and Camagüey under those