Petroquimica Rio Tercero Cancels Ammonium Unit Construction

---

Español

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Cordoba, Argentina)--Petroquimica Rio Tercero (Buenos Aires, Argentina) suspended the construction of a new ammonium unit that had been scheduled to be located in its Rio Tercero plant due to the lack of hydrocarbon feed needed for its future operations.

Petroquimica Rio Tercero, established in 1981 as the first company that had a toluene diisocyanate (TDI) plant in Argentina, was going to start the construction of this new ammonium unit by mid-2013. With a turnkey contract and a $25 million investment, the plant was going to produce 32,850 metric tons per year (T/yr) of ammonium.

The company, located in Rio Tercero, uses this compound as feed to generate other products. Petroquimica Rio Tercero cancelled this project due to natural gas supply constraints, since the pipeline that provides the region with this vital source of energy, is at the limit of its capacity to supply the urban and industrial demand.

Since the natural gas supplier company, Distribuidora de Gas del Centro (Ecogas), will not generate projects to expand that pipe trunk, the petrochemical company made this decision and cancelled the investment, which would have added a new product to the ones already produced at the site: hydrochloric acid, caustic soda, sodium hypochlorite and polyaluminium chloride (PAC).

Petroquimica Rio Tercero had to postpone another project for the upgrade of its phosgene unit. This $6 million investment has been cancelled due to financial reasons. Authorities still need to decide if this undertaking is to be resumed.

Despite the situation, the $30 million investment for the construction of a new nitric acid unit is still ongoing and will be completed in early 2016, with the financial approval scheduled to take place during the second quarter of 2013. At this moment, the firm is executing the detailed design and will be in charge of the preliminary engineering, which will be completed in the third quarter of 2013. Petroquimica Rio Tercero expects to select the company to complete the detailed engineering, the procurement and the construction for this project in order to start the erection in early 2014.

These projects are part of the expansion that the company plans to perform with other capital investments that are to be tentatively completed before 2017.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.