Venezuela to assist Cuba with reconstruction of Matanzas port damaged by five-day fire
Cuba’s largest port for crude oil and fuel imports was heavily damaged in a fire that started on August 5 after lightning struck a storage tank. The fire, finally extinguished five days later, destroyed four of eight crude oil tanks at the Matanzas port, located about 130 km from Havana.
Both Mexico and Venezuela sent firefighters to help battle the enormous fire.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has now promised his country’s support as Cuba rebuilds its only supertanker port. Maduro directed both Venezuela’s oil minister and the president of state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to work with their counterparts in Cuba to “begin the design of the reconstruction of the supertanker yard.”
Elaborating, he said, “We are going to design where it will be built, where the loading yard will be and begin the construction.”
The loss of oil at the port – Cuba’s only one able to handle tankers over 100,000 dwt – has exacerbated problems for the country’s oil-fired electrical grid.