Puerto América Coal Terminal

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The Puerto América export terminal ― also known by various other names, including the Puerto Bolívar export terminal, the Puerto Hugo Chávez export terminal, and the Terminal Carbonero de la Isla de San Bernardo ― was a proposed coal export terminal on the Gulf of Venezuela in Zulia, Venezuela.

The terminal was planned for construction on the islands of San Carlos, San Bernardo, Pájaros, and Zapara near the mouth of the Lago de Maracaibo.

Location

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Background

In the late 1980s, Venezuelan government agencies began considering the construction of a deep water port on the Gulf of Venezuela, to include a coal terminal capable of handling up to 30 million tonnes of coal exports annually. The coal was to be transported by rail from the mines of Zulia and Táchira states (Venezuela) and Norte de Santander department (Colombia).

Venezuelan coal production had traditionally been limited by two factors: 1) lack of rail infrastructure to transport coal from the Guasare Basin (Venezuela's main coal mining region) to ports on the Caribbean coast, and 2) limited coal storage and processing capacity at the nation's ports. In 2004, in a bid to strengthen Venezuela's coal sector, president Hugo Chávez called for construction of Puerto América, a significant new port at the mouth of Lago de Maracaibo, to be connected to the Sierra de Perijá mining region via a newly constructed railway. However, neither the port nor the railway was constructed during Chávez's tenure.

Over the years the project was known by many different names, including Puerto América, Puerto Bolívar, Puerto Venezuela, Terminal Carbonero de la Isla de San Bernardo, Puerto Príncipe, and Puerto de Aguas Profundas.

In August 2016, prospects for development of the port and railway project appeared to have been revived with the passage of a new law by Venezuela's national assembly — the Ley Programa Para El Saneamiento Del Lago De Maracaibo Y De Su Cuenca Hidrográfica — calling for cleanup of the Lago de Maracaibo. Article 11c of the law called for the planning and construction of new port and rail infrastructure outside of Lake Maracaibo's waters to handle international exports of of petroleum products and petrochemicals.

Venezuelan environmentalists, led by University of Zulia Professor Lusbi Portillo and the NGO Sociedad Homo et Natura, contended that the port specified in Article 11c would also logically handle exports of coal from Venezuela and Colombia. Given the fact that a typical deep water port requires channel depths of up to 42 feet (12.8 meters), in contrast to the Gulf of Venezuela's natural depth of 11.5 feet (3.5 meters), environmentalists further asserted that the proposed port would require substantial sea floor dredging, inflicting severe damage on local fisheries and wildlife.

Between 2017 and 2026 there were no further developments, likely due to the ongoing economic and political crisis within Venezuela, and the project was presumed to be cancelled.

Project Details

• Operator:
• Location: Zulia, Venezuela
• Annual Coal Capacity (Tonnes): 30 million
• Status: Cancelled
• Type: Exports
• Sources of coal: Zulia and Táchira states, Venezuela; Norte de Santander department, Colombia

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