By Wendy Anders

New Costa Rica Marine Fuel Dock Nears Completion

The Costa Rican State Oil Refinery (Recope) announced the completion of 85 percent of the work on a new marine terminal for receiving petroleum at the Moín, Limón port on the Caribbean coast.

Last week, the construction of the dock’s five arms was completed, said Recope.

Engineer Reina Naranjo who is in charge of the project stated in a press statement last week, “The hose system is no longer used, rather a metal arm which is coupled to the ship’s flange; and when everything is ready the transfer is initiated with a pump through a pipe inside the arm through which the petroleum passes and this is connected to pipes at the dock, and from there the products are sent to be refined.”

The special dock, known as a Dolphin Dock, is being built by the Mexican-Costa Rican consortium ICA – MECO for a total cost of 98.64 million dollars.

The project allows a doubling of current capacity in that it can receive ships of up to 80 million brute tons (which can carry 560, 000 barrels of crude), whereas before it was limited to those half that size. All types of fuel required in the country can be unloaded including crude oil, gasoline, diesel, and A-1 jet fuel.

Costa Rica imports all of its petroleum products. In 2015 a total 18,939,512 barrels of fuel were imported to the tune of 1.2 billion dollars.