SANTIAGO DE CUBA.— With extensive experience in innovation, the team at the Hermanos Díaz Oil Refinery—one of four facilities processing this fuel in the country—adapted "facilities where the heavy crude oil acquired by the country prior to the oil embargo announced by the Trump administration was refined, and to 'process' domestic crude," Irene Barbado Lucio, general director of the entity—which belongs to the Cuba-Petróleo Union (Cupet)—explained to Granma.
"Previously, we had managed to process imported heavy crude with a solvent that brought it to 16 degrees API, allowing it to become medium crude, because our industry was designed to do so with light crude; but we didn’t think to do it with the domestic crude," specified engineer Víctor Manuel Díaz Despaigne, leader of the multidisciplinary group that brought the technological innovation to fruition.
Given the urgency of obtaining naphtha to continue extraction from oil wells, Hermanos Díaz succeeded in producing, from domestic crude—which is highly viscous and contains high levels of sulfur and other contaminants—"both that derivative and fuel oil and diesel to be made available to the country. "It has been a process parallel to that of the Petroleum Research Center, characterized by extensive study and experimentation," added Barbado Lucio, also a member of the Party’s Central Committee.
Another "run" of domestic crude oil is planned, "as part of the continuous improvement of industrial processes, which is intensified with this type of oil, to achieve high-quality derivatives and ensure the essential protection of the environment," concluded Barbado Lucio.
RESEARCH AND RESULTS
At a recent meeting between the First Secretary of the Party’s Central Committee and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and members of the National Innovation Council (CNI, in Spanish), the technology for the use of domestic crude oil—also developed by the Petroleum Research Center (Ceinpet)—was unveiled, based on thermoconversion.
With this, the Head of State emphasized, "we broke a criterion, a taboo that existed in the country, that domestic crude oil could not be refined, that it could not be used for other purposes, and we had practically condemned it to being used directly in a group of thermoelectric power plants."
WHAT IS IT?
Thermoconversion is a process that improves the properties of heavy and extra-heavy crude (such as that from the northern oil belt, which is currently the most widely available and exploited in the country despite its high density, viscosity, and sulfur content) by facilitating the breakdown of some of its most complex compounds through controlled heating.
According to a press release from the Presidency, engineer Irenaldo Pérez Cardoso, deputy director of CUPET, explained that the technology essentially aims to reduce the viscosity of the crude oil without the need to mix it with naphtha, a product that has been in short supply due to the intensified blockade, the fuel shortages since 2019, and now the energy blockade.
Pérez Cardoso announced the decision to install a pilot plant at the Sergio Soto refinery in Cabaiguán, Sancti Spíritus, to take advantage of the conditions there: water, steam, electricity, and above all the expertise of its team, which has been processing this crude since 2010.
The implementation of this innovation also includes a second phase, aimed at catalytic development using Cuban laterites; "that is, using our natural resources to reduce its sulfur content, which is another major challenge for Cuban crude oil."
