The Eloy Alfaro Pacific Refinery will be finished by 2017, said President Rafael Correa this week during his broadcast.

The refinery and petrochemical plant would be Ecuador’s first facility for processing crude oil into petroleum derivatives.

For the first time, Ecuador will manufacture products such as high and low octane fuels, diesel, lubricants, polipropilene, benzene, xylene, alcohol, instead of importing them. Currently Ecuador spends about $3 billion a year buying these products from foreign refineries.

The plant is located in El Aromo country, in Manta, Manabí. Construction is set to cost $12 billion dollars: the largest infrastructure investment in Ecuador’s history. Correa said construction of the refinery will create 25,000 short term jobs for people in Manabí.

The plant, build on 700 hectares of land, will be equipped to process 300,000 barrels of crude a day.

Construction is financed by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Vicepresident Jorge Glas said he could not go into details about the financial deal struck between Ecuador and the bank.

The Wall Street Journal reported in June that the China National Petroleum Corporation issued a statement  saying they would "take a share in the construction of the Pacific Refinery project and participate in the exploration and development of Ecuadors upstream resources." According to the WSJ, that corpation already owns four oil and gas block in Ecuador, and produces more oil and gas than any other Chines company. 

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