Havana, July 1 (RHC) -– Venezuela and Cuba continue to expand the refinery project they jointly develop in Cuba in an effort to increase its production capacity up to 80,000 barrels a day.

Venezuelan Engineer Ramon Curapiaca, the company’s Assistant Manager for Operations, told the press that the two stages of investment to grow from its current 65,000 barrel design per day will take place until the end of 2015, the Prensa Latina news agency reported on Monday.

The Cienfuegos Refinery was the first and the largest bi-national Project promoted under the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA).

After concluding its modernization process during 2007, the plant, built with technology of the former Soviet Union in the 1980’s, was re-inaugurated on December 21 of that same year as the culmination of the 4th Summit of PetroCaribe, mechanism of integration within the ALBA, organized in Cienfuegos, 250 southeast of Havana.

Since then, the industry has refined some 130 million barrels, and has no problem to execute its annual plan for the 7th year in a row, specified Curapiaca.