19-07-01 Venezuela's Orimulsion boiler fuel producer Bitumes de Orinoco, or Bitor, and China's state-owned National Petroleum Corporation, or CNPC, are going to construct a 6.5-mm-ton Orimulsion plant in Venezuela. The plant is worth of $ 300 mm and should come on line in 2004. CNPC would get a 70 % share while Bitor would receive the remaining 30 %, government officials were quoted as saying.
Bitor posted a net profit of $ 60 mm in 2000, up from $ 10 mm in 1999. Production was increased to 6.23 mm tons compared with 4.85 mm tons in 1999. The largest importer of Orimulsion was Italy with a total of 2.75 mm tons, followed by Denmark with 1.10 mm tons and Canada with 750,000 tons.

Bitor also remains interested in the US market although Orimulsion was banned in Florida due to environmental regulations. While Venezuelan officials maintain Orimulsion burns cleaner than coal or fuel oil, environmentalists argue otherwise, and managed to block its use in Florida in 1988.