The Government of the Canary Islands, through the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning, has authorized the start, in the coming weeks, of the work of the first phase of Withdrawal of units from the Cepsa de Santa Cruz Refinery. This was announced yesterday by the President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, and the CEO of Cepsa, Maarten Wetselaar, after the meeting they held in the Presidency of the Government, a meeting in which they discussed the details of this process, which is included in the strategy to promote sustainability and the energy transition.
Ángel Víctor Torres pointed out at the meeting that the dismantling of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Refinery and the Santa Cruz Verde 2030 project (promoted by the Capital City Council), agreed with the administrations, “will mean the greatest transformation that a municipality. It will be an emblem for the cities of the future.”
Torres added that the public use of the space now occupied by the Refinery will allow the inhabitants of Santa Cruz de Tenerife to have “a friendlier, more sustainable and healthier city; and with substantial improvements in aspects such as mobility, social and economic development; with an inclusive, accessible, safe and resilient urban planning, and an energy transition that can be exemplary”. In this sense, the head of the Executive recalled that this action, “which had been expected for many years”, must be carried out following the criteria of the Canarian Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030.
For the Canarian president, the commitment acquired by all the citizens of the Islands, the public administrations and the private sector with the strategic framework of the Canarian Agenda 2030 must be translated into sustainable projects aligned with the promotion of urban renewal and regeneration, the increase in the area allocated to urban green infrastructure, and the improvement and expansion of open-air surfaces with universal access.
The president wanted to highlight that, “with the information that the CEO of Cepsa has given us about the project, we can say that an exciting process is being consolidated for the capital and for the entire Island.” And he added that this will be “one of the great actions of the decade”, which joins other strategic works promoted in this legislature in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, such as the start in June 2021 of the works of Valleseco Beach, and in the rest of the island of Tenerife, such as the beginning of the replacement works in the Las Chumberas Urbanization (La Laguna), the start of work on the section between Santiago del Teide and El Tanque of the insular ring or the progress in the definition of the project for the closure of this circular road with the section between the municipalities of Icod and San Juan de la Rambla.
For his part, Maarten Wetselaar, Cepsa’s new CEO since January 1, highlighted the energy company’s commitment to the Canary Islands, the place where it began its activity in 1930. “Cepsa has made an enormous contribution to social development and economy of the Canary Islands for more than 90 years, also guaranteeing its energy supply. We have the clear will to continue with this commitment in the future, also contributing to its energy transition process together with the rest of the public institutions. The Santa Cruz Verde 2030 project is a great example of this ambition.” Wetselaar also pointed out that “at Cepsa we believe in the need to undertake an ecological transition that is comprehensive, fair and inclusive for all people; and this is the reason why we are carrying out a profound transformation that responds to the climate challenge.”
Phase
The first phase of the process of gradual withdrawal of units from the Refinery, which will last until 2025, will be carried out following a schedule agreed upon with the Government of the Canary Islands before each action, guaranteeing at all times that none of them compromises the activity or the service currently provided by the installation, so as not to affect the energy supply of the Islands.
The first action of the agreed work plan will begin in the near future and will include the removal and recovery of the soil of the unit known as Merox. Once the interventions of the first phase are completed, the next one will be addressed, focused on the environment where the crude oil storage tanks are located, for which Cepsa is already processing the projects and mandatory administrative permits.
The start-up of a new storage park in the Port of Granadilla, for which Cepsa already has an administrative concession and which is expected to become a reality in 2025, together with greater use of other facilities that Cepsa already has company on the Island, will allow the start of the works of this second phase, which will entail the uninstallation of the remaining equipment of the Refinery, in its entirety, and the voluntary remediation of the soil.
This last phase will give the green light to the construction process of the city’s new green space, which will mark a milestone in the sustainable development objectives of the agendas of the competent administrations involved and of Cepsa.
At yesterday’s meeting, the energy company stated that it aspires to become a benchmark thanks to the implementation of different lines of action that affect all its business areas, the generation processes of its products and the energy solutions it offers to the citizenship.
Santa Cruz
The mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez, yesterday expressed his satisfaction at the fact that “the planned roadmap with the company Cepsa is maintained and the deadlines set in that agreement signed in 2018 are met”, and added that “I hope that the tanks will begin to be dismantled on the scheduled dates.” The mayor held a meeting prior to the Presidency meeting with the CEO of Cepsa, Maarten Wetselaar; José Manuel Martínez, Director of Technology; the director of Cepsa in the Canary Islands, José Manuel Fernández-Sabugo, and the director of Communication of this same company, Juan Llobell.
“A modern and sustainable city will spread over these lands”
The mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, advanced that “the Santa Cruz City Council will continue to dialogue, as it cannot be otherwise, with Cepsa to propose the urban planning of a modern and sustainable city that will extend over those 578,000 square meters that will become a city after 2030”.
He recalled that in June 2018 the City Council of the capital of Tenerife and the company Cepsa sealed a historic agreement for the city to recover the land of the Refinery, under the name of the Santa Cruz Verde 2030 Project, a key initiative for the future of the city and the Island. “This action, with which the capital will recover 573,000 square meters, will become a unique opportunity in the Archipelago to design a new urban model”, in the same way that “in this space the environment will be very present environment and public endowments, which will have a majority weight”.
