With vast experience in innovation, the workforce at the Hermanos Díaz Oil Refinery—one of four facilities processing fuel in the country—adapted installations in which the heavy crude acquired by the nation before the oil blockade announced by the Trump Administration was refined, to "run" domestic crude, explained Irene Barbado Lucio, General Director of the entity and a member of the Cuba-Petróleo Union (Cupet).

Previously, we had managed to process imported heavy crude using a solvent to bring it to 16 API degrees, allowing it to become medium crude, because our industry was designed to work with light crude; however, we did not consider doing so with domestic oil, stated engineer Víctor Manuel Díaz Despaigne, leader of the multidisciplinary group that spearheaded the technological innovation.

Given the urgent need to obtain naphtha to continue extraction at oil wells, the Hermanos Díaz refinery succeeded in processing domestic crude—which is highly viscous and contains high levels of sulfur and other contaminants—to ensure that this derivative, as well as fuel oil and diesel, were made available to the country. It has been a process parallel to that of the Oil Research Center, characterized by significant study and experimentation, added Barbado Lucio, who is also a member of the Central Committee of the Party.

A second "run" of domestic crude is planned as part of the continuous improvement of industrial processes, which is intensified with this type of petroleum to achieve high-quality derivatives and the essential protection of the environment, Barbado Lucio concluded.

Research and Results

In a recent meeting between the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and members of the National Innovation Council (CNI), the technology for utilizing domestic crude was presented. This technology, also developed by the Oil Research Center (Ceinpet), is based on thermoconversion.

With this breakthrough, the Head of State highlighted, we broke a criterion, a taboo that existed in the country, that domestic crude could not be refined, that it could not be used for other things, and we had practically condemned it to be used directly in a group of thermoelectric plants.

The Process Explained

Thermoconversion is a process that improves the properties of heavy and extra-heavy crude (such as that from the northern oil belt, which is currently the most available and exploited in the country despite its high density, viscosity, and sulfur content) by facilitating the breakdown of some of its most complex compounds through controlled heating.

According to a press report from the Presidency, engineer Irenaldo Pérez Cardoso, Deputy Director of Cupet, explained that the technology essentially involves reducing the viscosity of the crude without the need to mix it with naphtha, a product that has been in short supply due to the intensified blockade and the targeting of fuel shipments since 2019.

Pérez Cardoso announced the decision to install a pilot plant at the Sergio Soto refinery in Cabaiguán, Sancti Spíritus. This location was chosen to leverage existing conditions: water, steam, electricity, and, above all, the expertise of a workforce that has been processing this type of crude since 2010.

The implementation of this innovation includes a second stage focused on catalytic development using Cuban laterites; that is, using our own natural resources to lower its sulfur content, which is another major challenge of Cuban crude.