Successful processing of offshore oil at CRP

abarrelfullabarrelfull wrote on 05 Feb 2014 07:26
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26-03-2009

A portion of the first shipment of crude oil from the jack-up located at the Corocoro field, Gulf of Paria, arrived in the Paraguaná Refining Center (CRP). A total amount of 240,000 barrels of Corocoro oil landed on Falcón coasts through the dock at Cardón refinery. The crude oil will be added to the diet of the distillation unit number 3 (CD3).

The shipment was processed in two stages or runs, each of 50,000 bpd. The Technical Management, the Maintenance Management and the Operations Management joined efforts and conducted tests in order to ascertain to what extent the crude oil could be processed at the CRP. The result was quite a success.

It is a medium crude oil of 24° API gravity, and high salt content, from 40 to 50 PTB. For this reason, it was processed at CD3. This site has a desalting unit that reduces 70%-80% of the salt content in order to get a crude oil with adequate salt levels.

The CD3 desalting unit was refurbished in 2000 to process crude oil of high sulfur content, high naphtha acidity, and synthetic crude oils produced in the upgraders located in east Venezuela. A work team comprising staff from the managements of Operations, Technical and Maintenance met to estimate the yield and schedule the plant input, among other technical considerations, with a view to ensuring the processing of the referred crude oil at CRP.

Results were as expected and it was verified that the Corocoro crude oil may be added with no restriction whatsoever to the CRP diet in order to get gasoline, kerosene, medium gasoil and other byproducts. Concomitantly, 790,000 barrels of Corocoro crude oil were exported, mainly to the Netherlands Antilles.

Upon the successful processing of such hydrocarbon, Venezuela has taken another step towards the expansion of its oil business, in the direction of Full Oil Sovereignty. The oil extraction was possible because of the endeavor of Venezuelan professionals and technicians deployed 23 miles from Güiria, Sucre state. The processing in the homeland was carried out thanks to the national expertise in refining.


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