Chavez to build Nicaraguan refinery

The plant would end Nicaragua's energy shortage, Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president said on Friday.

Chavez was speaking in Managua a day after Ortega's inauguration on Wednesday.

The plan was first announced last year by Nicaragua's new energy company Albanic, a joint venture between Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, and municipalities then in the hands of former Marxist rebel leader Ortega's Sandinista Party.

"With God's help Nicaragua will not have any more fuel problems," Chavez said during a meeting with Ortega, who won the presidential election in November after nearly 17 years in opposition.

Ortega led the Sandinista revolution in 1979 and remained in power until voters threw him out in 1990.

Chavez gas pledge

Chavez also said that gas from a pipeline being built between Venezuela and Colombia and which he plans to expand to Panama, should also be available to Nicaragua.

Nicaragua, one of Latin America's poorest countries, generates 80 percent of its electricity from oil-derived fuel, and high world oil prices have caused an energy crisis that frequently blacks out large parts of the country.

he refinery project is one of a string of deals Chavez has made with friendly nations across Latin America and the Caribbean to counter US influence in the region.

Ortega's balancing act

Chavez said the refinery would be majority-owned by the Nicaraguan government, with Venezuela a minority owner.

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