Green light for construction of modernization project at Barrancabermeja refinery

abarrelfull wrote on 17 May 2011 06:57
Tags: colombia ecopetrol refinery

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The Board of Directors of Ecopetrol at the session held on May 13, gave the green light to phase 3 of the Modernization Project of the Barrancabermeja Refinery (PMRB), for a total investment of US$3,386 million.

As a result, operations will officially begin on the construction phase of the project, which is scheduled to commence operations in 2016.The project will enable the country´s largest refinery to increase the conversion factor from 76% to 95%, which means that it will be possible to obtain more products, such as gasoline and diesel, and a greater quantity of heavy crudes will be processed, whose production has been increasing in Colombia in recent years.

This project is expected to improve the refinery´s profitability and supply the entire Colombian market without the need for any imports.

The modernized refinery is expected to produce fuels of higher quality, which will help reduce pollution and lead to better air quality in Colombia, and place the country among the group of leaders in Latin America in the use of cutting edge technology, with operations that are reliable, safe, efficient and environmentally friendly.

It is expected that the execution of this project will generate great benefits for Barrancabermeja, the region and the country in the form of training of skilled local labor, employment and contracting of goods and services, as well as greater tax revenues and transfers to the national, departmental and municipal governments.

The Barrancabermeja refinery, which supplies nearly 80% of the fuels consumed in Colombia, is located in the department of Santander and has a crude processing capacity of 250,000 barrels per day.

• Green light for construction of modernization project at Barrancabermeja refinery

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