Spain's Cepsa extends refinery to 200,000 bpd

 

Spain's Cepsa officially opened an extension on Wednesday to double capacity to 200,000 barrels per day at its Huelva refinery, which has been working at near capacity since mid-September, an oil company official said.

The 1.1 billion euro ($1.54 billion) extension was completed at the end of the second quarter, but refining halted after a fatal accident on Aug. 4 at the plant in southwestern Spain.

Cepsa built the refinery to increase its capacity to produce middle distillates, including diesel, in which Spain has a deficit. The latest available figures from state-run strategic petroleum products corporation CORES show Spain imported 7.749 million tonnes of diesel in the year to August. Exports were 569,000 tonnes in the same period.