About 56 miles west of the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, a new refinery is being built. The project is a joint venture between PDVSA and Petronic.

The new refinery will be capable of producing 150,000 b/d.

Venezuela President, Hugo Chavez, said the new refinery will produce five fold what Nicaragua consumes, which means Nicaragua will be a net exporter of oil within five years.

The total investment is expected to near $4 billion, Chavez said.

Once the Sandino-Bolivar refinery is online, its first goal will be to almost double storage capacity, which is currently at 14,000 bbl—goal is 27,000 bbl.

According to CITGO.com, PDVSA has a domestic refining capacity of 1.3 million b/d.