Uruguay La Teja Refinery Exp & Coker Add

[basil parmesanParticipant]

ANCAP La Teja, Uruguay

Platts 23Dec11

Uruguayan state-owned oil company ANCAP plans to restart

operations at its 50,000 b/d La Teja refinery in Montevideo at the

first of the year, a source familiar with the refinerys operations said

Thursday. In anticipation of the start-up, ANCAP is loading a 1 million-

barrel cargo of Venezuelan crudes (Santa Barbara, Leona, Merey

16) on January 4 from the port of Puerto La Cruz for delivery to

Uruguay, the source said. The refinery was brought down on September

21 for planned maintenance that included prep work for the

installation of new crude units designed to improve the refinerys

conversion factor and gear it to be able process Venezuelan heavy

crude oil, a source said in September. The upgrade, slated to be

completed by 2016, would include the installation of a 17,000 b/d

coker unit, producing more petroleum coke instead of fuel oil.
Diesel and gasoline products refined at La Teja would also have

lower sulfur content, the source said at the time. The La Teja refinery

upgrade, expected to cost $1 billion, would be a joint venture

between ANCAP and Venezuelas PDVSA. ANCAP is a net importer of

crude and is supplied in part by a long-term contract with

Venezuelas state PDVSA and through tender purchases.

[Charles RandallParticipant]

Here is Uruguay Coker update – Platts recent version doesnt seem include anything new from one ANCAP has had posted website for sometime (see
http://www.uruguayxxi.gub.uy/innovaportal/v/477/2/innova.front/ancap_-_extensive_conversion_at_la_teja_refinery.html ).

ANCAP La Teja (50MBD) is Uruguay’s only refinery & has no domestic crude so it must import. Technit had done an expansion in 2003 taking La Teja capacity from 37.5MBD to current 50MBD. Aug 2005 it signed long term crude agreement with PDVSA for up to 43.6MBD and later Sept 2005 formed study committee with PDVSA which did MOU for $500MM expansion to double capacity of La Teja Refinery. The end of 2008 ANCAP made initial announcement on the Expansion project going out to bid. A little later in 2009 ANCAP also announced a contract with Foster Wheeler in 4Q2009 for LNG recieving terminal.

News items on ANCAP La Teja Jont Venture with PDVSA expansion/doubling & a 17MBD coker addition have been made in both 2010 and 2011 – increasing target startup date to current 2016. Have not seen indication on whom will be doing the coker technology. The current estimates for $1 Billion are from end of study in 2008 and probably BEFORE big increase in construction cost rolled thru oil industry – so it is likely to see major increase given size and scope quoted.

Regards

[Author]

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