The government has already prepared an offer to propose Costa Rica as the ideal location for the Meso American refinery project.  The project was outlined last December in the meeting of Presidents and Heads of State in Cancun, Mexico.  360 million barrels of fuel would be produced daily in the refinery, along with natural gas and electricity.

The project is worth $ 8 billion and should be operating in 2012. Roberto Dobles, Minister of Energy and the Environment stated that Costa Rica has many advantages: political stability, stable economy, human resources, central location, and infrastructure for petroleum on both coasts.

Costa Rica would see 15,000 temporary jobs during the construction of the refinery, 1500 permanent jobs operating the refinery, and 4500 indirect positions are expection to be generated by activities related to the refinery.  Dobles guaranteed that the refinery would not harm the environment.