The fuel tank of the Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Plant (CTE) that caught fire last Friday contains ten thousand cubic meters of oil intended for the electrical generation of the Matanzas giant.
The official journalist José Miguel Solís revealed this on one of his social media posts, stating that 72 hours after the fire was extinguished, the power plant remains stable, generating 260 MW.
Engineer Román Pérez Castañeda, Technical Deputy Director of CTE, confirmed that "at this moment, the block does not pose threats that prevent generation from continuing."
Likewise, the executive stated that the burned tank was damaged and needs repair, mainly in the deck structure, deformed by the heat.
"In that regard, the water it received is drained, and then the ten thousand cubic meters of oil are transferred to another tank," said Pérez Castañeda.
The engineer did not offer details about the logistics and the time it will take to carry out the transfer operation of the 10,000 cubic meters of crude oil.
He also did not specify whether it is the heavy national crude or an imported fuel. According to the Cuban regime authorities, the country's thermoelectric plants are running on national crude oil, which has a high sulfur content. This is why the thermoelectric plants are experiencing more breakdowns and requiring more maintenance than usual.
At the moment, the Yumuri thermal plant is operating with another tank similar to the one that caught fire, which is fed from Matanzas' supertankers' base, a task that requires precision in quality parameters, as it does not have the prudent 'rest' in the Yumuri block," Solís noted in his publication.
To reassure the population, Pérez Castañeda stated that this operating mode is not new for the power plant in Matanzas. "On other occasions, it has operated under similar conditions without major issues," he pointed out.
After these operations, personnel from a brigade specialized in tank construction will intervene, who will take care of the inspection and subsequent restoration of the tank, concluded the Guiteras executive.
Starting from the hypothesis that the fuel contained in the burned tank is of Cuban origin, the ten thousand cubic meters of heavy crude oil with high sulfur content would weigh approximately around 9,500 tons.
"For those who do not want us to receive oil... two ships. Don't panic, we are also receiving fuel, okay?" Solís said at the beginning of April regarding the arrival of another fuel ship in Matanzas.
Regarding this, independent media reported that it could be the Nordic tanker, which would be arriving in Matanzas with a cargo of approximately 60,000 tons of oil.
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