PDVSA Refinery to Undergo Major $1.7 Billion Conversion Project

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) (Caracas, Venezuela) will spend $1.7 billion on a major conversion of its Puerto la Cruz refinery in Anzoategui, Venezuela, to make the facility the first in the country to use HDH Plus technology. The technology, developed by PDVSA's subsidiary Intevep, is used to convert heavy oil and extra-heavy oil into products like gasoline and diesel fuel. For more details, view related May 11, 2006, article - PDVSA's Investment to Improve the Puerto La Cruz Refinery in Venezuela.

Japan's JGC Corporation (Yokohama, Kanagawa) and Inelectra (Caracas) were awarded the turnkey engineering, procurement and construction contract for the project. Basic engineering has been completed, and the project has moved into the concept-engineering phase, which is expected to be complete by the fourth quarter of 2008.

Project details

•New sulfur-recovery unit
•New diesel hydrotreater unit
•New light naphtha hydrotreater with a processing capacity of 35,000 barrels per day (BBL/d)
•New vacuum gas-oil hydrotreater unit
•Two new 50,000 BBL/d vacuum trains
•New hydrogen unit
•New platforming unit with a capacity of 25,000 BBL/d
•New steam generator
•New water and waste-water treaters
•New boilers with capacities of 5,000 gallons per minute

The refinery does not use gas-treatment units because it receives its gas from clean wells.

Construction is scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of 2010, with completion set for the fourth quarter of 2013.

PDVSA also plans to revamp all three atmospheric distillation units at the refinery by 2011 as part of the major upgrade. For more details, view related May 29, 2008, article - PDVSA Performs Turnarounds as Part of Puerto La Cruz Refinery Optimization.

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