In the 1950s, Puerto Rico began emerging from a time when its economy was almost entirely based on sugar. Fluor was tasked with engineering and construction of the Caribbean commonwealth's first-ever oil refinery in a landmark engineering and construction contract signed with the Caribbean Refining Company.

The refinery was built at a cost of roughly $10 million and opened in 1955. The installation at the refinery included a crude unit, a fluid catalytic cracking and fractionation unit, a catalytic polymerizer and a gas concentration and treating and blending plant. Offsite, additional facilities included a tank farm, boilers and pipelines.