Ecuador’s Esmeraldas Refinery Faces Three Month Emergency Shutdown

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). The 18,000 barrels per day Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU) at the Esmeraldas, Ecuador refinery, which has a processing capacity of110, 000 barrels per day, has been shutdown since February 15, 2007 after the regenerator’s combustor stopped working. This unit is expected to be shutdown until June 2007. It will cost $1.7 million to perform repairs.

Ecuador is the fifth largest oil producer in South America with 532,000 barrels of oil per day (b/d) production capacity. Petroecuador owns three refineries: 43,000 b/d La Libertad, 110,000 b/d Shushufindi and 110,000 b/d Esmeraldas Refinery. The latter processes 65% of Ecuador’s fuel production, 40% of which is used for internal consumption.

A planned maintenance shutdown at the only FCCU of Ecuador’s refineries was previously scheduled for July 2007; however, after the unexpected shutdown in February, Ecuador’s state-owned oil company had to call for emergency bidding. Lumoil Cia Ltda (Quito, Ecuador) was the company selected by Petroecuador to carry out maintenance work; the new UOP technology combustor is being manufactured by a construction company from the USA. Maintenance work has already started and will last approximately two more months since the combustor has not been delivered yet. Because of this problem at the FCCU, an unplanned shutdown at the Visbreaker 2 was originated. The unit was operational until February 24, 2007; however, it had to be shutdown because of a lack of fuel gas reserves to feed furnace burners. This unit was reactivated after two weeks once the unit started to be fed by imported high-octane gasoline.

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