San Nicolas (Aruba)
Coordinates: 12 ° 26 '9.3 " N , 69 ° 54' 32.8" W.
 
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Location of San Nicolas in Aruba |
San Nicolas ( papiamento : Sint Nicolaas ) is a place in the southeast of Aruba .
The second largest city on the island with around 15,283 inhabitants (2010) is located around 19 kilometers southeast of the capital Oranjestad .
history
Origin of name
The place was named after Nicolas van der Biest (1808–1873), who owned a large piece of land there and operated a plantation.
Industry in San Nicolas
The second largest town on the island was only an insignificant fishing village until around 1880. This changed suddenly when phosphate was mined on Sero Colorado and Sero Grandi.
With the discovery of vast amounts of crude oil in the Maracaibo Sea in northwestern Venezuela , the American Oil Company built an oil refinery in Aruba in 1920 . The plant was built in the municipality of San Nicolas and began operating in 1924. Lago Oil & Transport Co. Ltd. expanded the port of San Nicolas and the former village quickly became the largest industrial city in Aruba.
Extensive tank farms were built south of the city center. The crude oil came to Aruba in tankers from the Maracaibo Sea production area and was processed into petroleum products such as gasoline , diesel fuel , heating oil and kerosene and then shipped on to the United States in deep-sea tankers . From 1938, Great Britain was also supplied with 100 octane aviation gasoline. At the time, Aruba and Curaçao were home to the world's largest oil refineries. During the Second World War , the industrial area of San Nicolas was attacked by German and Italian submarines to stop the production of jet fuel. In 1985 Exxon Corporation began dismantling the facilities. Before the refinery was completely dismantled, however, the Aruba government was able to win Coastal Petroleum as an investor. This reopened the refinery after a general overhaul. However, Coastal was nowhere near selling its original capacity. In 2004 the refinery was sold to Valero Energy Corporation, which operated the refinery until 2012. Most recently, the refinery had a capacity of 275,000 barrels per day. Operations are currently closed (as of 12/2014).
As a result of the uncertainty surrounding the operation of the refinery, the number of inhabitants in the town fell to 15,283 in 2010. The industrial city of San Nicolas does not play a significant role in tourism. A section of San Nicolas' main street has been turned into a promenade with shops, small bars, and souvenir shops - which also sell handicrafts.
Demographics
| City area | Area (km²) | Residents 1991 |
Population 2000 |
Residents 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Nicolas North | 23.19 | 8.206 | 10.118 | 10,433 |
| San Nicolas Zuid | 9.64 | 5,304 | 5,730 | 4,850 |
| Total San Nicolas | 32.83 | 13,510 | 15,848 | 15,283 |
Sports
San Nicolas is home to the FC San Nicolas football club .
See also
Worth seeing
- San Nicolas water tower with industrial museum
- San Nicolas Model Railway Museum
- Aruba International Raceway , motor racing circuit in San Nicolas Noord
- Baby Beach , Aruba's southeasternmost beach
Individual evidence
- ↑ Oil Refining on arubaeconomicaffairs.aw accessed, December 11, 2014.
- ↑ The Central Bureau of Statistics presents the results of the 2010 Aruba Census ( Memento of the original dated December 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
