Venezuelan state oil corporation Pdvsa is launching an aggressive regional expansion plan this year, including purchase and leasing of facilities for crude oil storage and shipping and for processing of oil byproducts.

Based on the 2007 Report the holding submitted last February to the Venezuelan Parliament, this year the company plans to buy an oil terminal northeast Brazil with a capacity of 24,000 bpd of fuel, a lube mixing and filling plant in Ecuador, and 38,000 tons / year asphalt terminal in Ecuador. The purchases in Ecuador will help Pdvsa “expand PDV trademark’s share in the Ecuadorian market and cement alliances with Petroecuador to introduce the trademark in the state chain.”

In Central America and the Caribbean, Pdvsa plans to rent seaports, as well as oil transportation and storage facilities in Santo Tomás de Castilla, Guatemala. Such premises comprise a tank farm, a seaport oil terminal, and a 250,000 bpd distribution plant. This compound is expected to become a regional storage hub for shipment of fuels and diesel primarily.

Pdvsa is renting a tank farm and a 260,000 barrels storage Terminal in St John’s, Antigua, to ship diesel and fuels to Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. In Haiti, the Venezuelan holding is renting a fuel oil storage and shipment complex to generate power in the Caribbean country.

Pdvsa is to expand its premises in El Guamache, northern Nueva Esparta state, particularly the tank farm and terminal, to dispatch byproducts to the Caribbean.

Further, PDV plans to brand privately owned gas stations in Salvador, and is set to reinforce fuel sales to Nicaraguan transportation cooperatives and gas stations. The holding also intends to “penetrate” the Belize market in order to sell fuel to the industrial and agriculture sectors.