Future Project at Petroecuador's La Libertad Refinery

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Ecuador's national energy and hydrocarbon investment fund (FEISEH) has approved several projects to optimize three refineries as part of Petroindustrial's plans to lower sulfur content in fuel products before 2015. Ecuador is South America's fifth-largest oil producer with a capacity of 532,000 barrels per day. The country's energy company, Petroecuador, through its subsidiary Petroindustrial, owns the three refineries: La Libertad (De Las Guayas Provinces), Shushufindi (Sucumbios Province) and Esmeraldas (Esmeraldas Province). For details, view related August 30, 2007, article - Esmeraldas Refinery Still Unable to Reach Normal Rates. Several other projects are still under analysis.

One project aims to optimize La Libertad's performance and increase production by taking advantage of the estimated 24,000-barrels of residue that the refinery's three processing plants render per day. They will add 26,000 barrels per day of gasoline and first order derivatives to the refinery's current production of 45,000 barrels per day. Studies are being conducted for FEISEH'S approval. The $800 million project is expected to be authorized by mid-2008. Bids for basic and detailed engineering will be carried out in the third quarter of 2008 after the project's approval, and both bids may be carried out at the same time to accelerate the process. Basic engineering is expected to last nine months, and detailed engineering will take place six months after the first step is completed. International bids for the project's procurement and construction are scheduled to take place in the second half of 2009. UOP technology, already used in other areas in the refinery, is most likely to be used in the project; this would facilitate the integration of the new facilities to the refinery. The new infrastructure most suitable for the project is still being studies; however, it could include a residual fluid catalytic cracker), hydrosulfurization, sulfur recovery, decoking, an isomerization unit, and even a Merox unit.

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