Petroecuador delegation makes technical visit to New Talara Refinery

Officials from the company Petroecuador made a technical visit to the New Talara Refinery with the aim of knowing the modern refining complex of Petroperú, which is in the process of gradual and progressive start-up tests for its subsequent commissioning and commercial operation. in the fourth quarter of this year. Similarly, an agenda was developed to evaluate joint refining and hydrocarbon transportation projects.

The visit began with a presentation on the New Talara Refinery, the most important energy megaproject in the country, which has the most modern deep conversion process in Latin America, increasing its production capacity to 95,000 barrels per day (BPD). to provide greater energy security to the country through a flexible industrial infrastructure that will be able to process high-density or heavy crude oil.

After that, the Petroecuador delegation took a guided tour of this engineering and construction work that has 16 process units and five auxiliary units and complementary services, two liquid loading docks and 21 storage tanks, a modern laboratory with certification to guarantee the quality of its products and a new fire-fighting station, among other facilities that will provide facilities for the new refining complex.

As part of the visit, work meetings were held in order to exchange knowledge and experiences gathered by the Petroperú team of technicians in the construction of the New Talara Refinery. Petroecuador officials pointed out that this transfer of knowledge contributes to the development of their deep conversion projects in the medium and long term.

In the same way, an exposition of the technical aspects of the Flexicoking Unit of the New Talara Refinery, licensed by Exxon Mobil and only present in nine refineries in the world, was developed, describing its design capacity, the properties of its feed and specifications of its resulting products, as well as the profitability it will generate by converting the residuals into products of greater commercial value.

“The technology that the Talara Refinery now has is impetuous for all of us who work in the world of Oil and Gas, because it will generate greater profitability and improvements for compliance with fuel emission regulations with less sulfur. ”, indicated the Petroecuador technicians.

Other topics for the benefit of both companies were addressed during the visit, such as the exchange of experiences in exploration and production activities, the proposal for a pipeline interconnection project between Ecuador and Peru, the processing of residuals from the Esmeraldas Refinery at the Talara Refinery, as well as such as the availability of Petroecuador's Napo crude for processing at the Talara Refinery.

Petroecuador Refineries

Petroecuador has a refining model that is made up of three refineries, the largest being Esmeraldas Refinery, which has a processing capacity of 110,000 BPD. In addition, it has the La Libertad Refinery with a refining capacity of 45,000 BPD and the Shushifindi Refinery with a refining capacity of 20,000 BPD.