Puerto La Cruz Refinery Deep Conversion Project, Anzoategui

The Deep Conversion Project at Puerto La Cruz Refinery is expected to be completed in 2020.

Venezuela has the most crude oil reserves in the world.

The project will enable PDVSA to process 210,000 barrels per day (bpd) of heavy and extra heavy crude oil from the Orinoco Oil Belt. Image courtesy of USGS.

Puerto La Cruz Refinery, one of Venezuela’s biggest oil refineries, is located 300km east of Caracas in the state of Anzoátegui.

The refinery is owned and operated by Venezuela’s national oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA). Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven reserves of crude oil.

Site preparation works for an expansion called the Deep Conversion Project started at the refinery in July 2014 and commissioning is expected in 2020.

The Puerto La Cruz Refinery conversion project will convert existing units, enabling the refinery to process 210,000 barrels per day (bpd) of heavy and extra heavy crude oil from oil reserves in the Orinoco Oil Belt (FPO) instead of the 180,000bpd of light and medium oil it currently processes.

Financing for the Deep Conversion Project

The overall investment for the project is estimated to exceed $9bn, with $1.5bn being provided by Japan Bank for International Cooperation and seven other banks. Hyundai Engineering and Construction is also helping to finance the project development.

Details of the Puerto La Cruz refinery expansion

The Puerto La Cruz Refinery deep conversion project spans 2,000,000m². The project involves constructioning 25 processing units, which will upgrade the refinery’s capacity.

A two-train, 50,000bpd deep conversion unit, a three-train sequential hydroprocessing (SHP) unit, a three-train, 130,000bpd vacuum unit, a sulphur recovery unit, a German-technology based nitrogen plant, and associated auxiliary units, service units, tanks and interconnections were constructed as part of the expansion.

The auxiliary units include hydrogen production, recovery and compression units, sour water stripping, sulfur recovery, amine recovery, and tail gas treatment. Industrial units with electrical substation and water cooling system are also undergoing construction.

The existing atmospheric distillation units 1 and 2 (DA-1 and DA2) are being upgraded as part of the project. Expansion of the tank yard of the eastern refining centre is underway, including the addition of 16 new storage tanks. The existing 35 tanks are being transformed for the low sulphur content oil, with 4.384 million barrels storage capacity.

Technologies used at the Venezuelan refinery

The new deep conversion units will feature patented HDHPLUS^® technology from PDVSA Intevep, a subsidiary of PDVSA. This technology has been in development since 1984 and will be commercialised for the first time for the Deep Conversion Project. The SHP unit will implement a technology licensed by Axens.

The refinery will feature two hydrogen reformers with a capacity of 135 million standard cubic feet per day. Reformers will incorporate Technip’s proprietary technologies, including high-efficiency top-fired steam reformers, to produce high-purity hydrogen and export steam. Emissions will be minimised by implementing modern nitrogen oxide reduction technology.

Contractors involved

Site preparation works for the project were performed by Wison through its indirectly non-wholly owned subsidiary Wison Engineering. The $834m contract was awarded in September 2013.

Wison Engineering further contracted China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group (CTCE), China Railway No.9 Group (CREC-9), China Railway Tenth Engineering Group (CREC-10) and TREVI to assist in early activities related to the site preparation works.

The $2.99bn engineering, procurement, construction and start-up assistance contract for the project was awarded to the Hyundai-Wison consortium, comprising Hyundai Engineering and Construction (Hyundai E&C), Hyundai Engineering and Wison, in June 2013.

The contract to provide detail engineering, procurement support and construction management services for the project was awarded to the consortium of Chiyoda Corporation, JGC Corporation and Inelectra in December 2011. Technoconsult has been subcontracted by Inelectra to carry out the detailed engineering for the atmospheric distillation units.

Project management consultants (PMCs) for the project are TOYO and Y&V Ingenieria y Construccion. The contract for the supply of the hydrogen reformers was awarded to Technip by the Hyundai-Wison consortium in July 2013. The contract value ranges from €50m (approximately $67m) to €100m (approximately $134m).

Two hydrocracking units and six hydrotreating reactors were shipped by SAL’s MV Lone vessel.

Other contractors involved in the project development are The PFF Group, KC Exim, AIG-Instrumentos, ALE, Servinor, Vepica, and Kovis Engineering and Construction.