The Dominican Republic is working out final terms of a long-discussed deal to sell nearly half the shares of the Caribbean nation's refinery to oil-rich Venezuela, a top official said Tuesday.
Treasury Minister Vicente Bengoa said the sale of 49 percent of Refineria Dominicana de Petroleo SA for $131.5 million should become official April 19, when President Leonel Fernandez is expected to sign a contract with Venezuela's state-run oil company.
Bengoa said the sale will allow the Dominican Republic to become an oil distribution center for the Caribbean and possibly Central America.
Opposition leaders and some business owners wary of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's socialist government have criticized Fernandez over the deal and argue he should have sought congressional approval.
"This has very serious implications because the economic sovereignty of the country" is being yielded, said economist Arthur Martinez Moya, president of the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party's economic commission.
Bengoa said the agreement will be sent to the Dominican Congress for approval after it is signed in Venezuela's capital, Caracas.
The Dominican Republic gets 50,000 barrels of oil daily under Venezuela's Petrocaribe program, which provides oil and natural gas at preferential prices. The country uses about 140,000 barrels a day.
The refinery, on the outskirts of the Dominican capital, has been in operation since 1973 and produces 30,000 barrels of fuel a day. It was part-owned by Royal Dutch Shell until Fernandez's government bought its stake in 2008 for $110 million.
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