Refining and
Petrochemicals
| The total refining
budget amounted
to US$282 million,
62% higher vs. 2006,
which led allowed
for execution of
95 reconversions,
growth, equipment
replacement, and
environmental projects |
|
In 2007, progress was made to position the Barrancabermeja and
Cartagena refineries in the first quartile in Latin America by the
year 2010.
It is worth to highlight in this area’s society management the startup
of operations of the Cartagena Refinery S.A. in April, the fulfillment
of the volumetric plans, the load increase, the reduction of
environmental incidents, the increase in refining gross margins,
the consolidation of cash flow benefits in the optimization plan,
and the increase in value added, EVA.
Refinery loads
The results of loads to both refineries exceeded the forecasts. With
regard to Barrancabermeja, the goal set for the year 2007 was accomplished,
which included the general shutdown of the U-2000,
and the difficulties undergone by the U-250 were overcome.
As regards Cartagena, 80.3 thousand barrels of oil per day (Kbpd)
were refined, that is to say, the maximization scheme of unit load
was maintained. This value becomes the highest ever reached in
the refinery.
Refining gross margin
The refining gross margin was favored by the crack spread, (term
that represents the calculation of earnings or profitability), the enhanced
performance of valuable products, and the optimization of
processes and crude yields at the refineries.
The increased margin was derived from high international prices
caused by the high demand from countries like China and
India, and to the increased production of medium distillates in
Barrancabermeja, which increased by 3% and helped reduce
diesel imports to thus meet the domestic demand.
Total operational unit costs
The total operational unit cost increased vis-à-vis previous years.
This was affected mostly by the exchange rate, which was 11.4%
below budget, the non-availability of natural gas that led to its substitution
for more costly fuels such as LPG or Fuel Oil, and the
price of natural gas, which was raised in the Cartagena refinery.
An additional aspect that affected the total cost was the depreciation
and amortization, as the Cartagena Refinery was given to the
new Society Refinar S.A. Worth to highlight are the reduced costs
of chemicals and catalysts derived from best practices addopted
by the refinery optimization program, added to the reduced use of
electrical power in Barrancabermeja, as a result of the improved
reliability of industrial services.
Reliability
The utilization factor was affected in the Barrancabermeja refinery
by the reduced load to cracking resulting from the medium distillates
optimization strategy. There was also a reduction in Cartagena
caused by more days of unscheduled shutdowns, which affected
mainly the catalytic cracking unit.
Accidentality
Accidentality rates in our refineries have been reduced in recent
years as a result of leadership, safety visits, “3 Wh’s” methodology,
and personnel awareness campaigns intended to make safety a
priority.
The recording of environmental incidents started in the year 2005.
Improvement has been evidenced as a result of an increased interest
on the environment and its preservation.
Investment
The total Refining and Petrochemicals investment budget amounted
to US$282 million in the year 2007, 62% higher than 2006,
and 100% higher than 2004. It included 95 reconversions, growth,
equipment replacement and environmental projects.
As per the investment budget breakout, it is worth noting that
US$172 million were allocated to the fuel hydro-treatment project,
US$28 million to projects intended to increase polyethylene production,
US$22 million to propylene production (US$13 million in
Barrancabermeja and US$9 million in Cartagena), US$5 million to
diesel blending, US$4 million to Consolidated Operational Control
(COC), and US$4 million to environmental projects.
During this period, US$1.5 million were destined to studies for the
Industrial Services Master Plan of the Barrancabermeja Refinery,
which gave rise to this project, with an estimated value of US$300
million and duration of 30 months.
Ecopetrol is the operator of the Cartagena Refinery where it has a 49% of the property |